LE3 .A278 2004

2004

Dennis, Michael

Acadia University

Bachelor of Arts

Honours

History

History & Classics

Abstract Jack Kerouac was born on 12 March 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts the third child of his French Canadian parents. Shortly after his move to New York in 1940 to attend Columbia University on a football scholarship. Kerouac began his restless wanderings that would dominate his adult life. Kerouac published his first novel The Town and the City in 1950 in the traditional and academic style but it was his second novel which appeared in 1957 called On the Road for which he is best remembered. On the strength of this work Kerouac became an icon of his generation. His iconic status was built upon the rebellious lifestyle he wrote about. In cultural terms Kerouac can be successfully compared to other male icons of this time: Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Elvis Presley. Each of these characters was rebellious, both in the media and in their own lives. For this natural expression which these icons all shared the young felt able to associate with them far more than they had with the American icons of before. Kerouac described his generation which was coming of age in the postwar years as being beat meaning; beaten down, downtrodden. His generation was one which idolised these icons who went against the conservative standards of America at this time as they felt alienated from a political system which continually disappointed them. Owing to the peculiar situation that America was placed in following WWII the beat message reached not only national but international attention. The central tenets of the beat generation appear in Kerouac's work On the Road and people reading it attempted to copy the lifestyle which it demonstrated. The work was initially very shocking to society and was heavily condemned on the basis of its affects upon the morals of society at this time. This shock value helped push back the conservative boundaries and allowed greater personal freedoms in which the developing generations revelled. The 1950s were a fast paced decade and soon Kerouac's place as an iconic status for the young was replaced with a new group of writers led by Ken Kesey. This new group expressed itself along similar lines to the beat generation, but far outdid the beats in terms of rebellion. They could be termed as second generation beats as they were more of a continuation than a separation from the group. Kerouac is good to study when looking at the beat generation as he was its icon. He did not bridge the cultural gap to the 1960s, staying instead in the 1950s mindset. This state of being out of touch can be seen in Kerouac's few public appearances in the 1960s. His work had originally only social implications but it soon took on a far wider meaning; religious, political, and economic. By breaking the social codes of his time Kerouac helped advance the freedoms of the younger generation of his time. This was felt in the generation that followed also. Kerouac is remembered as an icon of rebellion and the movement which he gave direction to was the first postwar counterculture in America.

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