On The Road - Kerouac and the Beats E-Book

Andrea Rieger

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2001

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: very good, University of Graz (Institute for American Studies), course: Exterior and Interior Journey in US literature and film, language: English, abstract: Introduction . Practically all of Kerouac's books are said to be autobiographical(1) . In my seminar paper I draw a comparison between the real life of Kerouac and his Beat colleagues and the events depicted in his novel “On the Road”. In order to do so, I focus on the biographies of both Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, whose personas build the main characters Sal and Dean. Furthermore, I illustrate the Beat movement – how it came into existence and why – and the attitudes within the Beat Generation. This is of importance to show that Kerouac’s novel “On the Road” not only stands within the tradition of the Beat movement but also defined it. Another focus is on the development of the novel’s main characters which consequently leads to the question of the meaning of journey in the novel. I demonstrate that at different stages the main characters had different motifs for travelling. In addition, I also show that the journeys changed with the progress of the plot. [...] ______ 1 cf. Seymour Krim, “Introduction“. Jack Kerouac. Desolation Angels. New York: Coward-McCann, 1965. xxii.

Leseprobe

Table of Content

Chapter

1.1 Jack Kerouac

1.2 Neal Cassady

2.1 Drugs

2.2 Jazz and Bebop

4.1 Dean Moriarty

4.2 Sal Paradise

4.2.1 Sal’s language

Primary Sources

Secondary Literature

Sources from the Internet

Page 2

Introduction .

Practically all of Kerouac's books are said to be autobiographical1. In my seminar paper I draw a comparison between the real life of Kerouac and his Beat colleagues and the events depicted in his novel “On the Road”. In order to do so, I focus on the biographies of both Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, whose personas build the main characters Sal and Dean. Furthermore, I illustrate the Beat movement - how it came into existence and why - and the attitudes within the Beat Generation. This is of importance to show that Kerouac’s novel “On the Road” not only stands within the tradition of the Beat movement but also defined it.

Another focus is on the development of the novel’s main characters which consequently leads to the question of the meaning of journey in the novel. I demonstrate that at different stages the main characters had different motifs for travelling. In addition, I also show that the journeys changed with the progress of the plot.

1. The Biographies of Two Travellers .

1.1 Jack Kerouac

1cf. Seymour Krim, “Introduction“. Jack Kerouac.Desolation Angels.New York: Coward-McCann, 1965. xxii.

2cf. Gerald Nicosia,Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac.New York: Grove Press, 1983. 21-31.

Page 3

Life in Lowell had become a financial struggle for Jack's parents: Leo's once successful printshop began to suffer as well. Jack's father turned to gambling in order to help the family's financial situation3. Jack felt that going to college might help restore the Kerouac name and good reputation. He received a football scholarship to Columbia University, but they insisted that he should first go to Horace Mann, a prep school in New York, for a year, what he actually did then.4

At age 17, Jack published articles in the “Horace Mann Record”, which was the school newspaper.5In 1941, he spent his first and only year at Columbia. The football plans did not work: Jack broke his leg and was unhappy with his coach's insistence that he should not not play. To beat it all, Leo lost his business and fell into alcoholism. Jack dropped out of college.6

Jack joined the Merchant Marines, and a year later, after the Second World War began, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. During these couple of years, Kerouac sailed to Greenland as well as to Liverpool as a merchant seamen. He was discharged from the Navy for psychiatric reasons.7

Frankie Edith Parker, a girl Jack knew from his Columbia days and later his first wife, made Jack meet Allen Ginsberg, Lucian Carr, William Burroughs, and Neal Cassady during these years when he was home from sailing. His new friends, some of them from Columbia University as well, were either writers or wannabe writers, and a deep literary interest tied these men together.8Jack later gave Allen a manuscript he had been working on, and in turn Allen gave the manuscript to one of his professors. This book was published in 1950, as “The Town and the City”.