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On the Road

On the Road. The Beat Generation & Jack Kerouac. The Beats. A small group of friends turned into a movement Jack Kerouac Allen Ginsberg Neal Cassady William S. Burroughs John Clellon Holmes. The Beats. Started in uptown Manhattan in the mid-1940s

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On the Road

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  1. On the Road The Beat Generation & Jack Kerouac

  2. The Beats • A small group of friends turned into a movement • Jack Kerouac • Allen Ginsberg • Neal Cassady • William S. Burroughs • John Clellon Holmes

  3. The Beats • Started in uptown Manhattan in the mid-1940s • Migrated to San Francisco and picked up other like-minded friends

  4. The Beat Generation • “If today’s Generation X” (or “Gen Y” or whatever it’s called) is like Woodstock, the Beat Generation was like a small dark tavern at two in the morning, with a bunch of old jazz musicians jamming on stage and Jack Kerouac buying rounds at the bar.”

  5. The Beat Generation • “The so-called Beat Generation was a whole bunch of people, of all different nationalities, who came to the conclusion that society sucked.”

  6. The Beat Generation • “Beat”: bad, ruined, spent – defeat, resignation, disappointment • Young men who “came of age” during World War II but couldn’t fit in as clean-cut soldiers or professional businessmen • They had to struggle to survive – and couldn’t sit still

  7. The Beat Generation • “Beat”: beatific, holy, sacred • Kerouac was a devout Catholic and wanted to capture the “secret holiness” of the downtrodden

  8. Jack Kerouac • Born Jean-Louis Kerouac on March 12, 1922 • Spoke joual, a French dialect, before learning English • Youngest of three children

  9. Jack Kerouac • Won a football scholarship to Columbia University in New York • Fought with the coach • Dropped out and joined the military • Took cross-country trips with Neal Cassady and started working on his novel

  10. Jack Kerouac & On the Road • Wrote about his trips • Exactly as they happened • Without pausing to edit, fictionalize, or even think • With no paragraph marks • In stream-of-consciousness style • Myths: • Presented his manuscript on a single roll of unbroken paper, 120-feet long • In three weeks • Faced seven years of rejection prior to publication

  11. Jack Kerouac & On the Road • Achieved sudden celebrity: “Jack went to bed obscure and woke up famous” • Encountered spiritual and moral decline • Developed a severe drinking habit • Moved back to Long Island to live with his mother • Died on October 21, 1969

  12. On the Road • “If you read On the Road, it’s a valentine to the United States. All this is pure poetry almost a boy’s love for his country that’s just gushing in its adjectives and descriptions. You know, Kerouac used to say, ‘Anybody can make Paris holy, but I can make Topeka holy.’”

  13. On the Road • Gave a voice to a rising, dissatisfied fringe of the young generation of the late 1940s and early 1950s • A cast of restless, idealistic youth who yearn for something more than the bland conformity of a generally prosperous society

  14. On the Road • Colorful characters: • Jack Kerouac = Sal Paradise • Neal Cassady = Dean Moriarty (an “archetypal American Man” • Allen Ginsberg = Carlo Marx • William Burroughs = Bull Lee

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