Free Essays on Jack Kerouac

World War II marked a wide dividing line between the old and the new in American society and the nation’s literature†(The World Book Encyclopedia 427) . When world War II ended there was a pent up desire that had been postponed due to the war. Post war America brought about a time when it seemed that every young man was doing the same thing, getting a job, settling down and starting a family. America was becoming a nation of consumers. One group that was against conforming to this dull American lifestyle was referred to as ‘Beatniks’. â€Å"The Beats or Beatniks condemned middle class American life as morally bankrupt. They praised individualism as the highest human goal†(The World Book Encyclopedia 428). This perspective was present in poetry and literature through out the beat movement. One of the most important works produced during the beat movement was Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. In the novel Jack Kerouac’s alter ego Sal Paradise re presents the American man who realizes he doesn’t want to conform to societies pressures but still hasn’t realized what it is exactly he wants to do. He is a man who has very little direction and is very much lost in the world as he knows it. Kerouac seems to be constantly trying to escape. In examining the novel one might wonder what is Kerouac escaping and by what means does he do so? Kerouac used two means of escape through out the novel and through out his life. His first means of escape was his constant travel. He traveled from east to west, New York to San Francisco and stopped everywhere in between. He made this trip over and over, constantly on the road. The simple title of the novel exemplifies Kerouac’s ongoing need to travel. When he and his friends got tried of traveling east to west they traveled north to south, driving all the way down to Mexico City. His travels gave him the opportunity to be an outsider with no worries. He was able to witness and observe all that there wa... Free Essays on Jack Kerouac Free Essays on Jack Kerouac Expository Essay When asked to choose one book to be placed in my local school district’s public library my decision was easy. Over the course of my life I have read many books but there has always been one that stuck out in my mind. One that I could relate to and use as advice in my journey through life. On the Road, written by an ingenious free-spirit of the 50’s and 60’s, Jack Kerouac. In the time of the 50’s and 60’s when the average American was drinking Coca Cola, enjoying TV dinners, and watching I love Lucy on their black and white television there was Jack Kerouac, behind the scenes. A man completely ahead of his time, at the right time in America. At a time when the country was wide open with society and government keeping there distance, all you simply had to do for change was stick out your thumb. Kerouac was a writer from Massachusetts. He graduated from Columbia University and in the late 1940’s became a member of what was soon to be called, â€Å"the Beat Generation†. He wrote the book On the Road in three weeks although it took him seven years of spontaneous traveling to acquire its accounts. His wandering way of life was so rebellious of the times that his work was not praised until decades later. In the book On the Road, Kerouac plays an unsettling, insightful traveler on his own personal endeavor to search for an answer. To what question only Kerouac knows. His travels begin in Paterson, NJ, and over the course of seven years, never returning home, he manages to cross from east coast to west coast several times. With his friends Allen Ginsberg, Neil Cassady, and William Burroughs he encounters situations unheard of by the average man. With a notepad in hand he reveals consciousness itself, detailing every socialistic aspect of himself and others. Walking to the â€Å"Beat† of the jazz his spirit sends him soaring through a world of colorful, unpredictable adventures. Growing up as a you... Free Essays on Jack Kerouac World War II marked a wide dividing line between the old and the new in American society and the nation’s literature†(The World Book Encyclopedia 427) . When world War II ended there was a pent up desire that had been postponed due to the war. Post war America brought about a time when it seemed that every young man was doing the same thing, getting a job, settling down and starting a family. America was becoming a nation of consumers. One group that was against conforming to this dull American lifestyle was referred to as ‘Beatniks’. â€Å"The Beats or Beatniks condemned middle class American life as morally bankrupt. They praised individualism as the highest human goal†(The World Book Encyclopedia 428). This perspective was present in poetry and literature through out the beat movement. One of the most important works produced during the beat movement was Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. In the novel Jack Kerouac’s alter ego Sal Paradise re presents the American man who realizes he doesn’t want to conform to societies pressures but still hasn’t realized what it is exactly he wants to do. He is a man who has very little direction and is very much lost in the world as he knows it. Kerouac seems to be constantly trying to escape. In examining the novel one might wonder what is Kerouac escaping and by what means does he do so? Kerouac used two means of escape through out the novel and through out his life. His first means of escape was his constant travel. He traveled from east to west, New York to San Francisco and stopped everywhere in between. He made this trip over and over, constantly on the road. The simple title of the novel exemplifies Kerouac’s ongoing need to travel. When he and his friends got tried of traveling east to west they traveled north to south, driving all the way down to Mexico City. His travels gave him the opportunity to be an outsider with no worries. He was able to witness and observe all that there wa...