TRABAJO DE FIN DE GRADO
FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA
GRADO EN INGLÉS
ROAD TO FREEDOM: A STUDY OF THE IDEAS OF THE BEAT
GENERATION AND THEIR PORTRAYAL IN JACK KEROUAC’S ON
THE ROAD
Camino a la libertad: Un estudio de las ideas de la Generación Beat y su
representación en On the Road, de Jack Kerouac
Alumno: Pablo Tiagonce Benito
NIF: 54127314-B
Tutor: José Manuel Estévez-Saá
Abstract
The Beat Generation emerged in the United States during the 1950s as a response to the
materialism and conventionality of their era. The ideas of the writers of the group defied the
traditional notions of sexuality, friendship, or spirituality, among others, and their beliefs
became highly influential in American society. Investigating the historical context of the Beats
and analyzing Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, this study aims to establish the main ideas of the
Beat Generation, to determine their origin and consequences, and to prove and explain the
representation of these in Kerouac’s novel.
Resumen
La Generación Beat emergió en los Estados Unidos durante la década de los cincuenta
como una respuesta al materialismo y convencionalismo de su era. Las ideas de los escritores
del grupo desafiaron las nociones tradicionales de sexualidad, amistad o espiritualidad, entre
otras, y sus creencias se hicieron altamente influyentes en la sociedad americana. Por medio de
la investigación del contexto histórico de los Beats y el análisis de On the Road, de Jack
Kerouac, este estudio tratará de establecer las ideas principales de la Generación Beat, de
determinar su origen y consecuencias, y de probar y explicar la representación de estas en la
novela de Kerouac.
1. Introduction
1
1.1. Objectives
1
1.2. Methodology
2
1.3. Basic concepts
3
1.3.1. Beat Generation
3
1.3.2. Jack Kerouac
5
1.3.3. On the Road
7
2. Ideas of the Beat Generation
9
2.1. Historical framework
9
2.1.1. Before the Beats: Where did they come from?
10
2.1.1.1. World War II
10
2.1.1.2. Jazz music
13
2.1.1.3. Other socioeconomic factors
14
2.1.2. After the Beats: What did they start?
16
2.1.2.1. Beatniks
17
2.1.2.2. Hippie movement
18
2.1.2.3. Other sociopolitical movements
20
2.2. Beat motifs in On the Road
22
2.2.1. Nonconformity
23
2.2.2. Spirituality
26
2.2.3. Sexual freedom
29
2.2.4. Music
32
2.2.5. Madness
35
2.2.6. Alcohol and drugs
39
3. Conclusions
43
4. Works Cited
45
1. Introduction
This section will be dedicated to define the objectives and methodology of the project,
and will also include an introductory explanation of the three pivotal concepts of the study: the
Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac and On the Road.
1.1. Objectives
This dissertation seeks to identify the main ideas of the Beat Generation, to investigate
their provenance and posterior consequences, and to prove and analyze the representation of
these in On the Road.
In the introductory section of the study, some key concepts that will be further
developed in the next part, such as Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac, and On the Road will be
explained to provide the reader with a basic knowledge of these. The historical context of the
Beat Generation will be analyzed in detail in the body of the work, providing the necessary
information to comprehend their background and interpret their reasons, motivations, and
influence from a historical perspective. Also On the Road will be subject of analysis: The main
motifs of the Generation will be depicted through extracts from the book, which will serve to
recognize the presence of these ideas in the book and attain a further understanding of them.
Finally, the last section will present the findings of the research summarized, reflecting the
conclusions about both the ideas of the Beats and their representation in the novel.
1
1.2. Methodology
In order to properly understand the philosophy of the Beat Generation and to be able to
discern to what extent the sociopolitical context and the personal experiences of its authors
(especially Jack Kerouac) shaped it, this proposal will feature a complete analysis of these
phenomena from a perspective of cultural studies.
Cultural studies allows us, as Estévez-Saá affirms: “estudiar y entender al individuo en
un contexto de pertenencia a un grupo o una cultura determinada con la que se produce una
directa y decisiva identificación” (14). The historical context becomes a crucial element to
explain the subjects analyzed: Michael Pickering marks the importance of tracing “the longterm linkages between media development, democracy and structures of power, the recurrent
waves of social fears and anxieties among the middle classes, or the bearings that imperial
social relations have had on the development of national identity” (202). However, not only the
study of the context is necessary to understand and interpret a literary work: textual analysis is
also needed to give an accurate insight of its meaning, recognizing this way the primary
communicative intention of the author.
Thus, this analysis is focused on the influence of early to mid-twentieth century
American culture in the transformation of the individual (Jack Kerouac) and the group (Beat
Generation) and the posterior impact of these into the American culture at the start of the second
half of the same century. After this contextualization, some extracts of On the Road will be
classified depending on the ideas that are represented in them and commented individually to
illustrate how Kerouac captured these concepts in a novel which, even though it is from an early
period of his work, introduced the Beat ethos to the world with an innovative style.
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The process of elaboration of the dissertation took place in different, successive phases:
The first task consisted in choosing a central theme to develop the study. After that, it had to be
made an initial planning of the structure of the essay. Following, the study required a
compilation of informative material, which was found primarily via Internet, examining
different academic resources and collecting the relevant information. This data would be later
useful in the next stage, which consisted in the redaction of the introductory explanations of the
generation, author, and book analyzed and the context of these, focusing in the beliefs of the
Beat Generation and their repercussion in the immediately following years. Then, different
extracts of On the Road were selected, classified and commented to demonstrate the presence
of these ideas in the most important novel of the generation. Finally, the last part consisted in
the redaction of the methodology and the conclusions.
1.3. Basic concepts
A brief explanation of the generation, author, and book analyzed is indispensable to
better understand the importance of these in the context of American culture and to familiarize
with the concepts explained in the body of the work.
1.3.1. Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was a literary and cultural movement initiated in the 1950s, formed
in New York City around Columbia University by a group of American writers who shared
similar views on aspects such as life, art, society and spirituality. Three men are often referred
as the core of the group: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs; but the Beat
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Generation included other relevant authors such as Lucien Carr, Herbert Huncke, Neal Cassady
(defined in On the Road as the “hero” of his generation), and Gregory Corso, among others.
The term “beat” was first used by Jack Kerouac to define this movement during a
conversation with John Clellon Holmes in 1948. In his article “This Is The Beat Generation”
Holmes explains: “The origins of the word ‘beat’ are obscure . . . it implies the feeling of having
been used, of being raw. It involves a sort of nakedness of mind, and, ultimately, of soul; a
feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness.” (10). In his essay, Holmes points out
the individuality and the independence of a generation who grew up in a sociopolitical context
(they were witnesses of the Great Depression and the Nazi rise in Europe during their childhood,
and the Second World War during their adolescence) which made them skeptical about the
classical conceptions of life, work and family. This way, their rejection to a local, ordinary
existence “led to black markets, bebop, narcotics, sexual promiscuity, hucksterism, and JeanPaul Sartre” (Holmes 10).
However, the connotation of this word associated to the generation’s identity was
frequently discussed and redefined by its members: By the late 1950s, Kerouac highlighted the
“beatific” meaning of the name, devoted to reflect the secret holiness of the defeated. He gave
a complete explanation of the term in his essay “Beatific: The Origins of the Beat Generation”,
where he clarified the ideas of his generation, remonstrating against “those who think that the
Beat Generation means crime, delinquency, immorality, amorality”. When asked to give a
definition of the Beat Generation to be featured in the Random House Dictionary, Kerouac
described it as “Members of the generation that came of age after World War II, who
supposedly, as a result of disillusionment stemming from the cold war, espouse mystical
detachment, and relaxation of social and sexual tensions”.
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The Beat Generation became widely known after the publication of On the Road in
1957, and its members followed, created, and popularized different social tendencies such as
sexual revolution, recreational use of some drugs (cannabis, amphetamines), new musical forms
(bebop), spiritual liberation, and a perpetual search of new experiences. The Beat movement is
considered one of the most important cultural phenomena in American recent history, leaving
an artistic and social legacy which shaped to a certain extent the American mentality of the
1950s and 1960s.
1.3.2. Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac, born Jean-Louis Kérouac in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1922, was an
American author, leading figure of the Beat Generation. Kerouac wrote both poetry and novels,
and some of his works, as On the Road or The Dharma Bums are often mentioned among the
classics of the American literature. In his novels (most of them semi-autobiographical) it is
exposed an insightful outline of the American society and the characteristics of his generation.
Son of French-Canadian parents from Quebec, Kerouac spoke French at home and spent
his first years in the French-Canadian community of Lowell. He would later explain the
linguistic issues that he faced after his childhood in a letter written on 8 September 1950 to
Yvonne le Maitre: “The English language is a tool lately found... so late (I never spoke English
before I was six or seven). At 21, I was still somewhat awkward and illiterate sounding in my
speech and writings” (qtd. in Samanta 82). Jack’s fondness for literature was found at a young
age: he started writing about horse races, football and baseball when he was eleven.
Thus, Kerouac grew up in a regular, Catholic family until the death of his brother Gerard
in the summer of 1926, when he was only nine (Jack was four at that time). This event aroused
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the lost of faith of his father Leo, who turned to drinking, gambling, and smoking. However,
her mother’s faith was strengthened and Jack Kerouac inherited it, not only in terms of
Catholicism: he would later become interested in other religions such as Buddhism.
At the age of seventeen, Kerouac left his hometown to join the Horace Mann School in
New York, where he earned his pass to Columbia University thanks to his talent for football. It
would be in this city where Kerouac would fall in love with jazz and the Beat lifestyle.
After two years in the Columbia University, Kerouac dropped out after his football
career was definitively terminated. He joined the United States Merchant Marine but only
stayed there for three months. A year later, after a brief attempt to go back to the college in
Boston, enlisted in the United States Navy in 1943. However, he only served for eight days
before he was sent home: doctors diagnosed him “schizoid personality” due to his behaviour.
This rejection of a ordinary, stable lifestyle and his inability to commit to a single path
would remain a constant throughout his life, and would shape the unpredictable adventures that
he would later live and narrate in his novels: The writer would explain that during the six years
following 1951 (the time between his writing of On the Road and its publication) he was “a
bum, a brakeman, a seaman, a panhandler, a pseudo-Indian in Mexico, anything and
everything” (Kerouac, “Beatific: The Origins”).
So after being discharged from the Navy, Kerouac spent the next years in New York,
working odd jobs while writing and living in his parents’ new house in Queens. It was during
this years when he befriended characters such as Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, or Neal
Cassady, among others. This group of hipsters and writers would eventually form the Beat
Generation.
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Kerouac’s first novel, The Town and the City, was published in 1950, and even though
it was positively reviewed by the critics, it did not sell so well. It would be a year later when
we would write his magnum opus: rejected at first by publishers for its lack of sales potential,
On the Road turned into an instant classic after his publication in 1957.
The American author continued publishing his works consistently since then; The
Dharma Bums and The Subterraneans, both written in 1958, Mexico City Blues (1959), or Big
Sur (1962) are just some of his most famous novels.
Kerouac never got completely used to the fame that he achieved after On the Road. He
died in 1969 in St. Petersburg, Florida when he suffered an abdominal hemorrhage caused by
cirrhosis, contracted after several years of alcohol addiction.
1.3.3. On the Road
On the Road was written by Kerouac in just three weeks of the spring of 1951. The
novel was recorded in a single 175,000-word paragraph, for which Kerouac used a 36 meterlong roll of paper that he called "the scroll". This format let Kerouac develop his "spontaneous
prose", which he compared to the improvisation of jazz music.
However, before its publishing in 1957 (which arrived after numerous editorial
rejections), the original text suffered multiple rewrites, some episodes were suppressed for its
obscenity, and even a dog took part in the process, eating the final part of the scroll. The original
names of the story had also to be substituted to prevent legal problems, but finally the book saw
the light of day on 5 September 1957 and its success and influence have not stopped since then.
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Kerouac made a name for himself with On the Road, and the novel became considered the most
representative work of the Beat Generation.
The plot takes place between 1947 and 1950, and illustrates the delirious travels of Sal
Paradise (alter ego of Jack Kerouac) and Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady) around the United
States and Mexico, where they seek to find “IT”, the meaning of everything. Mysticism,
alcohol, sex, drugs, jazz, and frenetic car journeys shape the story that defined a generation.
This way, Sal, the narrator, explains how he meets Dean for the first time, and how he
is immediately fascinated by his attitude: Dean is completely hungry for new experiences,
restless and reckless, while Sal has always been after “the mad ones, the ones who are mad to
live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never
yawn or say a commonplace thing” (Kerouac, On the Road 5). Even though Neal Cassady was
not the best writer of the group, he became the “hero” and the “saint” of the Beats due to his
eager, spontaneous nature.
Dean somewhat transmits this madness to Sal and they start to move across America
meeting at some points with other Beats: Carlo Marx (Allen Ginsberg) and Old Bull Lee
(William Burroughs) are instances of other writers of the group featured in the book.
In three years they get to complete four big travels alternated with brief periods where
Sal settles for a stable life (even though he gets bored of it pretty quickly). During the years
narrated in the novel Dean gets married thrice and has three children; while Sal, who starts the
story being an unpassionate man, becomes more active and confident, and eventually finds the
love that he has been looking for during all the journey.
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2. Ideas of the Beat Generation
This section constitutes the main body of the report. The first part of it will be devoted
to analyze and explain the historical context of the Beat Generation, paying special attention to
how the events preceding the Beat Generation shaped their thinking, and also to the later
influence of the group’s actions and beliefs in American history.
Then, the second part will seek to select the most representative ideas of the Beats and
explain their manifestation in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, employing for it different quotations
from the book that will be classified and commented individually.
2.1. Historical framework
The 20th century entailed major changes in every aspect of human life. These affected
the whole world, but particularly the United States, which became the most powerful country
during this period.
The innovations of this time involved different areas, such as means of transport (planes
and cars became common and accessible during this century), technology (household
appliances, television), medicine (penicillin, the first antibiotic, was discovered by Alexander
Fleming in 1928), or new musical genres, among others. Life expectancy saw its biggest growth
ever (Riley 541) and poverty and violence were also substantially decreased.
However, this century also featured some of the most terrible episodes in human history,
such as the First and Second World War, as well as many other armed conflicts like the Vietnam
War or the Korean War, and some of the most dramatical economic crises; for example, the
Great Depression or the 1973 oil crisis.
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Some events and transformations of this era represent the causes and consequences of
the Beat Generation and their ideas, and these will be explained in this section.
2.1.1. Before the Beats: Where did they come from?
The Beat Generation, as the whole American society of the 1930s and 1940s, witnessed
a great number of changes that transformed completely the life in their country. The Great
Depression and the Second World War are the most notorious events, but the end of the
Prohibition (even though the Beats were still too young to drink, they lived the start of their
adulthood in an era in which alcohol had been just regulated), the growth of the automobile
industry, and the increase in popularity of jazz music are also factors that influenced the Beat
movement.
2.1.1.1. World War II
The Second World War took place between 1939 and 1945. It was the biggest and
deadliest conflict in human history, with over 55 million of deaths, about 3% of the 1940 world
population. The majority of countries in the world took part in the war, forming two opposing
military alliances: the Allies (the side that the United States supported) and the Axis.
The United States maintained formal neutrality in the war until the attack on Pearl
Harbor on 7 December 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacked by surprise
the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Over 16 million Americans took part in the war serving
the United States Armed Forces, and over 405.000 of them lost their lives during the conflict.
After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (on 6 and 9 August, respectively), the Empire
10
of Japan announced its surrender on 15 August 1945, known as the V-J Day (Victory over Japan
Day). Since Japan was the last country remaining of the Axis Power, it also determined the end
of the Second World War.
The members of the Beat Generation all lived through the war, and most of them served
in the military at some point, even if they did not take part directly in the conflict. Kerouac met
Ginsberg and Burroughs in 1944, and their confluence in this troublesome context influenced
their mentality and literature.
Although the Beats never focused their novels in the theme of war, nor did manifest
themselves publicly in favor of the actions of their country in the Second World War, Kerouac
was completely conscious of the historic moment that he was living while the war was being
developed. He wrote a letter to a girlfriend in July 1942 explaining his views towards war:
I wish to take part in the war, not because I want to kill anyone, but for a reason directly
opposed to killing—the Brotherhood. To be with my American brother, for that matter,
my Russian brothers; for their danger to be my danger . . . I want to return to college
with a feeling that I am a brother of the earth, to know that I am not snug and smug in
my little universe. (qtd. in Maher 97)
After having quit from the Merchant Marine in October 1942 to go back to college,
Kerouac wrote to his childhood friend Sebastian Sampas in November 1942: “I am wasting my
money and my health here at Columbia . . . I hear of American and Russian victories and I insist
on celebrating . . . I am more interested in the pith of our great times than in dissecting "Romeo
and Juliet." . . . These are stirring, magnificent times” (qtd. in Kerouac and Charters 30).
He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in December 1942 with the intention to become
a Navy pilot, but he failed the test due to “mechanical inaptitude” and was sent to the Naval
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Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island. Kerouac struggled with Navy discipline and was
discharged by June 1943 due to his unsuitability for the Naval Service.
The writer oscillated between his mother’s belligerent ideas and his father’s pacific
views, but his posture leaned towards peace during the Second World War. Sebastian Sampas
died in the war, and Kerouac would write a letter to her sister Stella (who would become Jack’s
wife some years later) affirming that “Wars don’t advance mankind except materially” (qtd. in
Kerouac and Charters 390). His posture would change during the 1960s: Going against the
current once again, offended by the comparison between the Beats and the hippies, Kerouac
affirmed that the pacifist ideas of his friend Allen Ginsberg were “pro-Castro bullshit”,
declaring himself against communism.
Burroughs, as Kerouac, tried at first to join the Navy seeking for some adventure in his
life, but he also got rejected in the process. He was the only author from the group who wrote
about war in his works, but he always did it in a analytical, unemotional way. He said in a taped
conversation published in Grand Street: “This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its
nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to
be based on war and games. All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers” (qtd. in Foye
and Burroughs 95).
Allen Ginsberg was, of the notable members of the generation, the one who was the
most vocal expressing his opinion of animosity towards the war. Three weeks after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, and being only fifteen, Allen wrote a letter to New York Times showing
his views on the conflict: “Our stupidity has reaped its harvest and we have a bumper crop,
since we sowed the world’s biggest blunder. The death toll in this war has been at least four
million… There is no preventable catastrophe in recorded history paralleling this” (qtd. in
Ginsberg and Morgan 2). After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Ginsberg centered
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his interest in poetry and traveling, putting aside his political compromise at this stage, an
interest that he would recover during the mid-1950s.
Generally, the Beats were not really passionate about the war, and they all centered their
literature in other themes of the American life during that time. However, the society in which
they lived (and the one of which they wrote about) was directly affected by it, so the Second
World War constitutes a crucial factor to understand the Beat Generation and their ideas.
2.1.1.2. Jazz music
Jazz music defined the rhythm of the United States (and especially New York) during
the 1930s and 1940s, reaching its peak of popularity during this era. Kerouac noticed it, he
wrote in On the Road that “At this time, 1947, bop was going like mad all over America”. It
was the time of Louis Armstrong, of Thelonious Monk, of Billie Holiday, Charlie “Bird” Parker
and “Dizzy” Gillespie. It was the time of bebop, a style of jazz which featured faster tempos
and gave more freedom to the artists, allowing them to improvise in their solos. It was a time
when people from diverse social and racial backgrounds would gather in jazz clubs such as the
legendary Cotton Club or the Café Society. Interracial audiences would get together and enjoy
a music, bebop, which was based in liberty and fun, representing an independence, creativity
and intensity that contrasted with the commercial music of its era, much more prudent and
linear.
These concepts were the ones which presumably attracted the Beats to this parties: From
the mid-1940s, Kerouac and Ginsberg frequented assiduously the jazz clubs of Greenwich
Village and Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, where they were inspired by the improvisation and
the passion that bebop artists put in their music. Spending their free time in this environment,
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and feeling related to the sentiment of bebop music, the Beats started to use the bop slang among
them, adopting into their “hip” language words such as "square", "dig", "cat", "flip", "groove"
or "nowhere". Their literary style got also directly influenced by this musicians: Kerouac would
define his style as “bop prose”, and his novels are the best example of it, with rambling,
spontaneous paragraphs that represent the speed of the events that take place in the narrative.
In “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose”, the author explains his method of writing: “Time being
of the essence in the purity of speech . . . blowing (as per jazz musician) on subject of image.”
and also “No periods separating sentence-structures . . . but the vigorous space dash separating
rhetorical breathing (as jazz musician drawing breath between outblown phrases)” (72). The
jazz song “The Hunt” (1947), by Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray is referenced in On the
Road, and Ginsberg declared in an interview in 1968, when talking about his inspiration to write
Howl (1956), that “Lester Young was what I was thinking about… Howl is all ‘Lester Leaps
In’ (1939)”.
In conclusion, jazz music was a major factor that influenced the Beat Generation. The
new, energetic music that made the people vibrate, the vocabulary and fashion of these artists
which captivated the hipsters, and the use of drugs with creative purposes were elements that
the Beats adapted to incorporate them into their lives and their literary style.
2.1.1.3. Other socioeconomic factors
There are some other socioeconomic factors that also defined the American society and
the Beat group. The end of the war marked the start of the Baby Boom (1946–1964), which was
partly motivated by the post-war economy in the U.S.
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It was, for most of American citizens, a comfortable time to be alive: The unemployment
rate was 5.3% by 1950 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). The salaries were increased, and the
people were eager to spend their money, which kept the economy going. This era signified the
eruption of consumerism: domestic appliances became accessible for a growing middle-class,
and television emerged as the star product of the American society. TV commercials did already
exist (the first ad was aired in 1941) so the expansion of televisions resulted in a feedback effect
that perpetuated the need to consume.
This economic growth and the desire of a safe environment after the uncertainty of the
war motivated people to form their families faster (according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the
average age of first marriage was 22.8 for men and 20.3 for women by 1950, while it was 24.3
and 21.5 respectively in 1940), which provoked the popularization of suburbs as the ideal place
to establish a family: “13 million housing units [were] built in the United States between 1948
and 1958” (Virden).
With regard to the social situation, the high importance given to the ideas of marriage
and parenthood caused a rise of conservatism during this time: fixed gender roles, the traditional
nuclear family and a classic conception of sexuality conformed the general social tendencies.
Feminism, whose advance had been constant from 1920s to early 1940s, was not that present
in the 1950s.
The Beats despised the mentality of this time: they were not attracted by the quiet,
boring life of suburbs, and the progression of senseless consumerism clashed with their search
for freedom, Kerouac would write in The Dharma Bums about
Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume
production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that cramp
15
they didn't really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy
cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week
later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce,
consume, work, produce, consume. (97)
They did not feel fascinated either by the idea of getting married early and settling down
in their 20s, nor were, at least some of them (as Allen Ginsberg), heterosexual.
However, there is a point which influenced positively the works and lives of the Beat
Generation: the unstoppable expansion of the automobile industry. The Beats did not need “new
fancy cars”, but they needed cars: without them they would not have completed their travels.
The advance of the factories (the automobile industry had to increase its productivity during
the Second World War to supply the military demands), combined with the end of the rationing
of supply to civilians after the end of the conflict; the downfall of rival industries (such as the
German, which was destroyed after their defeat) and the increase of economic liquidity among
the American population, made it possible for most of the population to have a car. This way,
travels as the ones chronicled in On the Road became much more common during this years
than in the 1930s.
In short, the Beat Generation was rebellious in a time of conformity and materialism.
They did not protest against these ideas that, regardless, made other people happy, but they
lived their lives and conceived their literature in an independent, unconventional way.
2.1.2. After the Beats: What did they start?
A great number of historic events took place in the United States during the late 1950s
and the 1960 subsequently to the rise of the Beat Generation, influenced by their ideas.
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The popularization of the Beat lifestyle in the late 1950s caused a misinterpretation of
the term which was eventually adopted and distorted by the mainstream. The 1960s was the era
of the counterculture, when students from all around the country protested against the American
consumerism, the Vietnam War (1955-1975) and segregation. They attempted to promote
alternative lifestyles, apart from the classic American concept of success, and, as the Beats did,
challenged the traditional ideas of sexuality and marriage. This new generation also presented
drug consumption as a morally acceptable way to reach personal fulfillment.
Thus, terms such as “beatnik”, “hippie” or “sexual revolution” are relevant in regard to
appreciate the influence of the Beat Generation.
2.1.2.1. Beatniks
The term “beatnik” was first used in 1958 by the journalist Herb Caen. Caen added the
Russian suffix “-nik” to suggest the un-Americanism of the Beats. In his article for San
Francisco Chronicle, he went to say that “Look magazine . . . hosted a party in a No. Beach
house for 50 Beatniks, and by the time word got around the sour grapevine, over 250 bearded
cats and kits were on hand, slopping up Mike Cowles' free booze. They're only Beat, y'know,
when it comes to work”.
This way, “beatnik” became representative of a stereotype which got absorbed rapidly
into American culture. Joyce Johnson explains in Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir how the
initial Beat philosophy got quickly distorted: “‘Beat Generation’ sold books, sold black
turtleneck sweaters and bongos, berets and dark glasses, sold a way of life that seemed like
dangerous fun . . . Suburban couples could have beatnik parties on Saturday nights and drink
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too much and fondle each other’s wives” (187). The beatniks were considered young snobs who
acted pretentious and refused to work.
Kerouac was aware of the ideas that were being associated to the movement that he had
presented to the world. Caen explained in 1995 in San Francisco Chronicle his encounter with
the writer after he had published his article about the “beatniks”: “He was mad. He said, ‘You're
putting us down and making us sound like jerks. I hate it. Stop using it’”.
Also David Amram illustrates in his biography Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac a
conversation with the American author in 1959 where he expressed his discontent: “No one
today knows what Beat is about. They certainly have no idea what I’m about, especially if they
read articles about me, where I’m misquoted . . . The Beatnik crap is distorting everything all
of us are trying to say” (41).
The Beat movement was twisted: While the original Beats had been free-thinking adults
(Kerouac was 25 when he started to travel around America with Neal Cassady, and wrote On
the Road being 31), the beatniks had, in Kerouac’s opinion, a more immature, clichéd
philosophy. He did not relate with these beatniks that self-proclaimed themselves Beats only
because they were attracted by the modernity associated to the term, not having lived the same
experiences as him and his friends. For Kerouac, the new beatniks emerged from the Beats, but
they were not part of the Beat Generation.
2.1.2.2. Hippie movement
During the 1960s, a new generation took over the cultural dissent tradition that the Beat
Generation had spread in the 1950s. These individuals who tried actively to change the society
in which they lived were called hippies.
18
The hippie movement was formed predominantly by white youth with liberal views who
aimed to introduce a change in American society by “spreading love”. They enjoyed
psychedelic music and substances (LSD was the drug par excellence of this era), dressed with
colorful clothes, wore long hair and beards, were sexually open-minded, and were attracted by
mysticism and spirituality. “Hippies were often pacifists, and participated in non-violent
political demonstrations, such as Civil Rights Movement, the marches on Washington D.C.,
and anti–Vietnam War demonstrations” (Avery 83).
Some of the original members of the Beat Generation, as Ginsberg, became involved
with the hippies. They saw the hippie movement as the natural evolution of the Beats, and
subscribed to their anti-authoritarian and anti-war ideas. Ginsberg “was a regular at hippie
gatherings, where he would read poetry, lecture about philosophy and spirituality, and lead the
crowds in Vedic chanting . . . [he] helped to bridge the gap between the countercultures of the
Beats and the hippies” (Issit 73).
However, Kerouac did not have the same opinion: Greg Sorell indicates in his article
“Why Jack Kerouac Loathed The Hippy Generation He Inspired” that “To Kerouac the beatniks
were irritating, but tolerable. It was the politicized hippie movement, the bohemians that
succeeded the beatniks in which Kerouac saw something truly sinister”.
The writer would explain how the hippie interpretation of his work had nothing to do
with his original intention in his article “After me the deluge”, published in 1969 (just months
before his death) in Chicago Tribune:
So What if these brand new alienated radical chillun of Kropotkin and Bakunin don’t
believe in western-style capitalism, private property, simple privacy even of individuals
or families, for instance, or in Jesus or any cluster of reasons for honesty . . . I wrote a
19
matter-of-fact account of a true adventure on the road . . . looking for lost fathers, odd
jobs, good times, and girls and winding up on the railroad . . . If it hadn’t been for
western-style capitalism so-called (nothing to do with the black market capitalism in
Jeeps and rice in Asia), or laissez-faire, free economic byplay. . . I wouldn’t have been
able or allowed to hitchhike half broke thru 47 states of this Union and see the scene
with my own eyes, unmolested. (20-21)
To sum up, while the Beats were a massive influence for the hippies who inherited part
of their ideas and the support of some of their notable members (as Ginsberg), Kerouac never
felt comfortable with the association of both generations, and abhorred the attitude of the hippie
movement.
2.1.2.3. Other sociopolitical movements
Other noteworthy sociopolitical movements which emerged subsequently to the Beat
Generation are the civil rights movement and the sexual revolution.
The first one took place between 1954 and 1968, and consisted in mass protests which
aimed to achieve for the African American citizens the same legal rights that the other
Americans already held, trying to end racial segregation. The success of these protests
culminated in the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, when any kind of discrimination based
on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin was declared illegal. The main figures of this
movement were Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
The implication of the Beats in this movement was limited, mainly because it was
mostly developed in the South of the United States, where discrimination was more intense.
20
But even though just a reduced number of Beats participated actively in it, they had already
challenged these discriminatory ideas in a non-activist way before the start of the protests. Even
though he did not participate in any of this movements (he had developed a bitter attitude
towards the large-scale protests that were taking place in the United States), Jack Kerouac was
fascinated by black culture and dedicated part of his work to deliver his idealized views on the
“Negro life”: “wishing I were a Negro, feeling that the best the white world had offered was
not enough ecstasy for me, not enough life, joy, kicks, darkness, music, not enough night” (On
the Road 112).
The sexual revolution arose between the 1960s and 1980s as a challenge to the
established gender roles, the stigma of homosexuality and the prejudices against non-marital
sex. It also pushed forward the use of contraceptive methods, pornography and public nudity.
The members of Beat Generation were also ahead of their time on this subject: Authors
such as Ginsberg and Burroughs were already open about their sexual tendencies (they were
homosexual and bisexual, respectively) during the 1940s, and Kerouac would chronicle in On
the Road the promiscuity of Dean Moriarty, along with some ambiguous attitudes towards
homosexual relationships. Kerouac’s novel had a hard time with censure due to some of these
provocative fragments that were considered too explicit at its time, and these had to be edited
extensively before its publication, six years after it was written.
Jennie Skerl notes that “[the] Beats utilized public space to challenge racial segregation
and homophobia, and the Beat counterculture achieved a substantial degree of integration for
both African Americans and male homosexuals” (53). The Beat Generation served a necessary
function in these issues, paving the way for these campaigns that improved the lives of
thousands of Americans during the 1960s.
21
2.2. Beat motifs in On the Road
Apart from its characteristic narrative style and the provocative stories that are narrated
in the book, On the Road became considered the most representative Beat work because, despite
being from an early stage of the Beat Generation, it features the great majority of the distinctive
ideas that made the group extraordinary.
It is important to note that, in almost every case, these ideas are best exemplified by
Dean Moriarty’s behaviour. Neal Cassady (Dean’s real life counterpart) was considered the
archetype of the Beat thinking, being often called the “hero” of the generation, and he is the
one who sets the pace of On the Road.
This way, six concepts (nonconformity, spirituality, sexual freedom, madness, music,
and alcohol and drugs) have been selected and will be analyzed and commented in this section,
employing for it quotations from the novel. These six topics appear interconnected throughout
the book, and they take different correlative combinations: for instance, at some times of the
novel music evokes nonconformist thoughts; the sexual relationships are described in a spiritual
way; or the madness is motivated by the use of drugs. Consequently, these six motifs can be
used to establish cause-effect relationships for almost every event that takes place in the story.
The characters mentioned in this section will be referred to by their name on the novel
when analyzing the passages of the book. At this regard, it is important to remember that Sal
Paradise is Jack Kerouac, Dean Moriarty is Neal Cassady, Carlo Marx is Allen Ginsberg, Old
Bull Lee is William Burroughs, Marylou is Luanne Henderson, and Camille is Carolyn
Cassady.
22
2.2.1. Nonconformity
The main attitude of the Beats and the fundamental factor that drives Sal and Dean to
keep moving, searching for new horizons, new girls, new meaningful conversations, and,
ultimately, new experiences can be summarized in one word: nonconformity.
They did not connect with a society based in conformity and acceptance of the
conventional norms. Their perspective of life was not compatible with staying at their homes
watching the years go by, living an ordinary life that did not have anything particularly
interesting for them: they were young, hungry and restless.
Kerouac manifested this idea constantly throughout the novel: Sal and especially Dean
never really get accommodated in any place, and something inside of their heads keeps telling
them to keep travelling, looking for a new, idealized place.
Sal relates at the start of the book how he decides to step out of his comfort zone after
having stayed in his aunt’s home all winter:
So, leaving my big half-manuscript sitting on top of my desk, and folding back my
comfortable home sheets for the last time one morning, I left with my canvas bag in
which a few fundamental things were packed and took off for the Pacific Ocean with
the fifty dollars in my pocket. (Kerouac, On the Road 7)
The narrator decides to travel 2.864 kilometers from New York to Denver just to know
Dean (who he had just met that same year) more only because, as a writer, he needs new
experiences, and feels that his new friend could inspire him. Thus, Sal leaves his room in his
aunt’s home with just a bag and 50 dollars (which were equivalent to 573.31 dollars in 2018
due to inflation).
23
Jack Kerouac (Sal Paradise) was probably not aware at the moment of the importance
of this decision: it marked the genesis of the Beat Generation and started the story of a book
which would become his most successful work, and a classic of American literature.
The ideas of dissatisfaction and evasion from a conventional lifestyle appear for the first
time in this extract, but these will only escalate from this point, leading to the new experiences
that the protagonists will seek during all the story.
This desire for adventures appears again in the next quotation:
What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain
till you see their specks dispersing?-it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's goodby. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies. (Kerouac, On the
Road 99-100)
Sal, reunited with Dean, does not doubt anymore about going ahead, leaving places and
people to find new, unknown ones. Dean has infected Sal with his inability to stand still in a
place, and they both share the thrill of traveling and living new adventures.
This carefree mindset is not reduced to terms of space, they do not care about the time
either, the attention that they have to give to the present situations impedes them to think about
the future and experiment anxiety: Dean expresses at this regard the need to “UNDERSTAND
that we're not REALLY worried about ANYTHING” (Kerouac, On the Road 85).
The last quotation related to this ideas features a more pessimistic approach:
Dean took out other pictures. I realized these were all the snapshots which our children
would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived smooth, wellordered, stabilized-within-the-photo lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on
24
the sidewalks of life, never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives,
our actual night, the hell of it, the senseless nightmare road. All of it inside endless and
beginningless emptiness. Pitiful forms of ignorance. (Kerouac, On the Road 159)
The writer reveals here the real reason that led to their adventures: the emptiness that
they felt. This emptiness was for the Beat Generation the consequence of a rigid, unoriginal
society where everybody seemed to do the same things. Kerouac would later write in The
Dharma Bums (1958) about their detachment from it:
Colleges being nothing but grooming schools for the middle-class non-identity which
usually finds its perfect expression on the outskirts of the campus in rows of well-to-do
houses with lawns and television sets in each living room with everybody looking at the
same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world
go prowling in the wilderness to hear the voice crying in the wilderness, to find the
ecstacy of the stars, to find the dark mysterious secret of the origin of faceless
wonderless crapulous civilization. (Kerouac, TheDharma 28)
The inside emptiness that Sal mentions is both “endless and beginningless”, so their
search for adventures had to be also incessant: that is the reason why many members of the Beat
Generation never got to completely adapt themselves to a quiet, stable life, and some of them,
as Kerouac or Cassady, suffered addiction problems and early deaths.
The portrayal in On the Road of the dissatisfaction of the Beat Generation and their
unruly character set a precedent for future American generations, which adapted and adopted
this genuine rebelliousness (apolitical in the case of the Beats) into their ideologies.
25
2.2.2. Spirituality
The pages of On the Road are loaded with religious and spiritual terms. Kerouac
expressed his Catholic faith with continuous references to God (concepts such as “heaven”,
“devil”, or “soul” appear constantly throughout the text) and conversations about the meaning
of life in which Sal and Dean are always involved.
The novel was written before Buddhism had caught Kerouac’s interest in 1953, but it
still features some metaphysical ideas which are not completely Catholic, like the existence of
the “Spirit of the Mountain” or ghosts.
The passages analyzed subsequently are examples of the spiritual ideas that the
characters discuss throughout the book.
This extract is part of a passionate speech that Dean is giving to Sal:
And of course now no one can tell us that there is no God. We've passed through all
forms. You remember, Sal, when I first came to New York and I wanted Chad King to
teach me about Nietzsche. You see how long ago? Everything is fine, God exists, we
know time. Everything since the Greeks has been predicated wrong. You can't make it
with geometry and geometrical systems of thinking. It's all this!” (Kerouac, On the
Road 76)
For Dean, it is indisputable that there is God. He knows it, he feels Him and appreciates
His work. He almost seems to connect with Him in some way during his episodes of madness.
The “saint” of the Beat Generation affirms that they have “passed through all forms”, and, after
all, there is no doubt about God existence.
26
The remembrance of the start of the novel, where it is first commented the interest of
Dean in Nietzsche and “all the wonderful intellectual things that Chad knew” is not
coincidental: Kerouac shows this way that the Beats are educated about contemporary
philosophy, but they reject those ideas. The unemotional, “geometrical systems of thinking”
collides with their passionate, faithful understanding of life.
The next fragment deals with existential issues:
Something, someone, some spirit was pursuing all of us across the desert of life and was
bound to catch us before we reached heaven. Naturally, now that I look back on it, this
is only death: death will overtake us before heaven. The one thing that we yearn for in
our living days, that makes us sigh and groan and undergo sweet nauseas of all kinds, is
the remembrance of some lost bliss that was probably experienced in the womb and can
only be reproduced (though we hate to admit it) in death. But who wants to die? In the
rush of events I kept thinking about this in the back of my mind. I told it to Dean and he
instantly recognized it as the mere simple longing for pure death; and because we're all
of us never in life again, he, rightly, would have nothing to do with it, and I agreed with
him then. (Kerouac, On the Road 79)
Sal thinks deeply about life and death, and extracts some sophisticated conclusions from
his meditation, which make him somewhat uneasy, unable to focus completely on the things
that are happening in front of him.
When he addresses Dean to speak about it, his friend simplifies the issue: he would
rather not waste his time thinking about death while he is alive. Dean is hungry for life, his
behaviour is impulsive, and his point is that overthinking and becoming too analytical only
leads to hesitation, depriving one of the adventures that are waiting on the road.
27
Sal agrees with these ideas, proving once again the influence of Neal Cassady’s ideas in the
Beat Generation.
Finally, Sal comments the loss of status that Dean experiences when things start falling
apart:
I suddenly realized that Dean, by virtue of his enormous series of sins, was becoming
the Idiot, the Imbecile, the Saint of the lot. "You have absolutely no regard for anybody
but yourself and your damned kicks. All you think about is what's hanging between your
legs and how much money or fun you can get out of people and then you just throw
them aside. Not only that but you're silly about it. It never occurs to you that life is
serious and there are people trying to make something decent out of it instead of just
goofing all the time." That's what Dean was, the HOLY GOOF. (Kerouac, On the Road
121)
Dean has become a martyr. The same people that enjoyed the good times with him are
now blaming him for his conduct. Galatea Dunkel is judging him for his lack of responsibility,
especially with Marylou and Camille, and everybody except Sal seems to agree with this.
Sal sees the injustice in this situation: while they all had been friends of Dean for years,
now that he has lost his value as a provider due to the decline of his physical and mental health
(he developed a chronic osteomyelitis in one hand, and his madness has got worse lately) they
do not longer support him as they did when he was leading the group.
The abundant use of biblical terms serves to reinforce the idea of sanctity that the
narrator tries to attribute to his friend, and he affirms in the next lines, playing once again with
the word that defined their generation, that “He was BEAT — the root, the soul of Beatific”
(Kerouac, On the Road 121), referring to Dean.
28
In short, spirituality and religion were important sources of inspiration for the Beat
Generation, and especially for Kerouac, who depicted his ideas about these themes in On the
Road.
2.2.3. Sexual freedom
In a conservative era regarding sexual and romantic relationships, the Beats chose
unconventional paths which led them to sporadic encounters and alternative sexual preferences.
The severe promiscuity of the two main characters of the book is the best example of this sexual
freedom.
After having split up with his wife some months before the start of his travels, Sal
becomes obsessed with building a meaningful connection with a woman: He admits this during
his narration, saying that “I couldn't meet a girl without saying to myself, What kind of wife
would she make?” (Kerouac, On the Road 74). He seems to fall in love with every woman that
he encounters on the road, but all of them eventually fail to satisfy his expectations, so he keeps
looking for his soulmate.
Dean Moriarty also lusts after plenty of women (and even some young girls), but it is
only sexual desire what moves him. His lack of vacillation when approaching them makes him
tremendously successful, but he is not that good at maintaining his relationships and taking care
of his partners: Dean is an excellent lover, but an awful husband.
Dean’s approach to sex is made clear from the very first paragraphs of the book:
Dean had dispatched the occupant of the apartment to the kitchen, probably to make
coffee, while he proceeded with his love problems, for to him sex was the one and only
29
holy and important thing in life, although he had to sweat and curse to make a living
and so on. (Kerouac, On the Road 2)
Dean prioritizes sex over any other thing in the world. This affirmation in the first pages
of the novel warns the reader of what will be the general tendency in the novel, throughout
which Dean will have sexual intercourse with different women.
It is notable how sex is presented as a holy experience, an association that will remain
constant throughout the novel, and also the construction “for to him”, which is reminiscent of
some verses of the Bible.
The next passage reflects Sal’s idea of sex:
I wanted to go and get Rita again and tell her a lot more things, and really make love to
her this time, and calm her fears about men. Boys and girls in America have such a sad
time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without
proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk - real straight talk about souls, for life is holy
and every moment is precious. (Kerouac, On the Road 36)
The narrator gives a mystic view of sex. What Sal seeks to find in his relationships is
some deep, spiritual connection to his couple, not only the physical experience of having sex,
but also an emotional bond. He laments the way in which the young Americans are building
their relationships: the artificial courting talk impedes a genuine talk about souls, which, in his
opinion, is the way to find real love and satisfying experiences.
The last excerpt deals with homosexuality and prostitution:
The fag said he would like nothing better than to know what Dean thought about all this.
Warning him first that he had once been a hustler in his youth, Dean asked him how
30
much money he had. I was in the bathroom. The fag became extremely sullen and I
think suspicious of Dean's final motives, turned over no money, and made vague
promises for Denver. He kept counting his money and checking on his wallet. Dean
threw up his hands and gave up. ‘You see, man, it's better not to bother. Offer them what
they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken. (Kerouac,
On the Road 131)
Even though he is portrayed in the book as a fervent heterosexual, Dean is willing to
have an intimate relationship with a homosexual if he gets paid for it, and his warning about
being a hustler in his past reflects that he has probably done this kind of things before.
According to Ginsberg, some of the edited and eliminated parts of On the Road featured
scenes where Dean was described having homosexual relations; Kerouac wanted these scenes
to be in the final version of the novel, but they were considered too explicit by his publishers.
A lot has been written about a hypothetical romance between Neal Cassady and
Kerouac, but this was never confirmed by any Beat and remains unclear to this day. However,
the homosexual experiences of Beats such as Ginsberg, Burroughs, or Cassady himself are
widely acknowledged in the Beat Generation’s work.
On the Road shows the mental independence of the Beat Generation through their idea
of sexuality. In an era in which the average age of marriage was being reduced and
heterosexuality was the social norm, they were against the current and did not hide their
promiscuity and alternative sexualities, which became part of their identity.
31
2.2.4. Music
Sal relates numerous episodes where music takes a central role in in the plot, being a
common element in many of the sceneries that he and Dean visit, and offering the characters
moments of freedom and inspiration. Music is, therefore, a recurrent motif in the travels of On
the road, and its presence is pivotal for some of the novel’s most memorable moments.
The name of the generation itself is indicative of the importance that Kerouac gave to
music: the Oxford Dictionary defines “beat” as “a regular, rhythmic sound or movement”. The
term was certainly popular during the 1940s in the African-American environments that the
Beats frequented, and this connotation of the word was probably a source of inspiration for the
author when giving name to the group.
Once again, it is Dean Moriarty the one who almost monopolizes the spotlight when
music is playing: he seems to have the rhythm flowing through his veins. Dean is able to sense
the connection between the beat and the meaning of life, and the almost-delirious episodes that
he experiences when music is playing are just another manifestation of his rambling, eccentric
attitude towards life.
In the following quotation, Sal Paradise presents the reader a first glimpse of the
significance that music is going to acquire in his story:
At this time, 1947, bop was going like mad all over America. The fellows at the Loop
blew, but with a tired air, because bop was somewhere between its Charlie Parker
Ornithology period and another period that began with Miles Davis. And as I sat there
listening to that sound of the light which bop has come to represent for all of us, I thought
of all my friends from one end of the country to the other and how they were really all
in the same vast backyard doing something so frantic and rushing-about. And for the
32
first time in my life, the following afternoon, I went into the West. (Kerouac, On the
Road 8-9)
After mentioning the popularity of bop at the time, Sal goes to comment that the air that
the musicians blew was somewhat tired, giving a precise contextualization of bebop: it was, in
1947, evolving from the electric melodies of Charlie “Bird” Parker’s Ornithology, which was
released in 1945, to the introspective style of Miles Davis, whose first album, The New Sounds,
was released in 1951.
The melody induces him to think about his friends, which demonstrates the importance
that bop has gained in their lives, acting as a connecting element between all of them, and
following this moment, for the first time, Sal travels to the West, in his way to Denver, where
he plans to meet his partners.
The extract depicts a characteristic reaction of the Beats: after the bop, which brings the
inspiration, the travel. Music keeps them going, both literally and figuratively speaking.
The next selected quotation depicts the attitude of Dean Moriarty when music is being
played:
And Shearing began to rock; a smile broke over his ecstatic face; he began to rock in
the piano seat, back and forth, slowly at first, then the beat went up, and he began
rocking fast . . . The bass-player hunched over and socked it in, faster and faster, it
seemed faster and faster, that's all . . . Dean was sweating; the sweat poured down his
collar "There he is! That's him! Old God! Old God Shearing! Yes! Yes! Yes!" And
Shearing was conscious of the madman behind him, he could hear every one of Dean's
gasps and imprecations, he could sense it though he couldn't see. "That's right!" Dean
said. "Yes!" Shearing smiled; he rocked. (Kerouac, On the Road 81-82)
33
George Shearing, an English jazz pianist who was just starting his successful career at
the time of the story (he released his first album, Piano Solo, in 1947), is featured in this extract.
Dean Moriarty recognizes the talent of the musician and starts shouting and sweating,
revealing his untamed nature to the reader, being defined as a “madman”. Even though
everybody is enjoying the rhythm, it is Dean the one who really feels it, and he behaves wildly
due to his sensations. The blind pianist perceives the extraordinary passion for music of the man
and smiles, glad that his music is making someone feel that liberated.
The last extract of this section may be the most representative paragraph regarding the
Beat idea of music:
Now, man, that alto man last night had IT-he held it once he found it; I've never seen a
guy who could hold so long." I wanted to know what "IT" meant. "Ah well"- Dean
laughed-"now you're asking me impon-de-rables- ahem! Here's a guy and everybody's
there, right? Up to him to put down what's on everybody's mind . . . All of a sudden
somewhere in the middle of the chorus he gets it- everybody looks up and knows; they
listen; he picks it up and carries. Time stops. He's filling empty space with the substance
of our lives, confessions of his bellybottom strain, remembrance of ideas, rehashes of
old blowing. He has to blow across bridges and come back and do it with such infinite
feeling soul-exploratory for the tune of the moment that everybody knows it's not the
tune that counts but IT-" Dean could go no further; he was sweating telling about it.
(Kerouac, On the Road 129-130)
In it, Dean gives a mystical account of what does it mean to him to have “IT”. He finds
the meaning of everything through music: the rhythm gives sense to the life of the ones who
got “IT”, and they reach their spiritual apotheosis while this musical inspiration lasts.
34
He starts sweating again (he does it almost every time any kind of music is mentioned
in the book) just talking about this, which shows just how passionate he becomes when he
reminisces about the emotions that music evokes in him.
In conclusion, the Beats found in music a direct path to liberation. It was when they
were submerged in the rhythm of jazz melodies and ecstatic bebop improvisations that they
were able to let their minds and bodies completely free, enjoying a sound that represented both
divinity and madness for them.
2.2.5. Madness
The idea of madness is apparent throughout the novel: words such as “mad”, “madness”,
“madman” and “crazy” appear more than 150 times in the text, which goes to show to what
extent the adventures and characters of On the Road represent this idea of unpredictability and
volatility.
Unquestionably, the best instance of this lunacy that affects to the characters of the book
is Dean Moriarty. Dean behaves in a way that resembles a permanent episode of hypomania,
he is unable to stop moving and speaking, and his figure acts as a tornado that mixes the lives
of everybody and turns everything upside down. Nevertheless, other Beats also show traces of
this madness: the poetry of Carlo Marx and his nightlong conversations with Dean are labelled
“mad” by the narrator, and Sal himself seems to be infected by some of the crazy traits of Dean
when they are together.
The following is probably the most popular quotation of Kerouac’s work:
35
But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've
been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are
the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of
everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but
burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the
stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’
(Kerouac, On the Road 5)
The whole story of the book can be summarized in the aforementioned sentence. Sal
spent the 3 years between 1947 and 1950 following Dean and his other friends, living crazy,
exceptional experiences.
Kerouac was not interested in an ordinary lifestyle, so he tried to meet with
extraordinary people who, as he wrote, never yawned or said commonplace things. The idea of
madness was exciting for the author, who was not afraid of taking risks or going through
unexpected events. This way, the madness mentioned in the first chapter of the book will
become one of the most symptomatic motifs of it.
The influence of this craziness is noted by Lucille, a woman that Sal wants to marry:
Dean was having his kicks; he put on a jazz record, grabbed Marylou, held her tight,
and bounced against her with the beat of the music. She bounced right back. It was a
real love dance. Ian MacArthur came in with a huge gang. The New Year's weekend
began, and lasted three days and three nights. Great gangs got in the Hudson and
swerved in the snowy New York streets from party to party. I brought Lucille and her
sister to the biggest party. When Lucille saw me with Dean and Marylou her face
darkened-she sensed the madness they put in me. ‘I don't like you when you're with
36
them.’ ‘Ah, it's all right, it's just kicks. We only live once. We're having a good time.’
‘No, it's sad and I don't like it’ (Kerouac, On the Road 79)
The text shows the influence that parties and music have on the Beats. Sal mentions
directly the madness that affects alto to him when he is next to Dean, and it must be really
apparent, because Lucille notices it instantly and expresses her discontent about it. She foresees
the future sadder times that both men will live when Dean’s madness turns detrimental and
some of their friends turn their backs on him for it. This craziness will also annoy Sal at some
points, but he is incapable of blaming Dean and stays with him as a brother.
Sal affirms: “We only live once. We're having a good time”, two sentences that describe
the attitude of the Beats during their travels in the book.
The following pair of quotations show a change in the narrator’s approach to Dean’s
madness:
Suddenly he stopped the car and collapsed. I turned and saw him huddled in the
corner of the seat, sleeping. His face was down on his good hand, and the bandaged
hand automatically and dutifully remained in the air. The people in the back seat sighed
with relief. I heard them -whispering mutiny. "We can't let him drive any more, he's
absolutely crazy, they must have let him out of an asylum or something." I rose to Dean's
defense and leaned back to talk to them. "He's not crazy, he'll be all right, and don't
worry about his driving, he's the best in the world." "I just can't stand it," said the girl in
a suppressed, hysterical whisper. I sat back and enjoyed nightfall on the desert and
waited for poorchild Angel Dean to wake up again. (Kerouac, On the Road 132)
I couldn't stop swearing, I was so mad and disgusted with Dean. He said nothing
and went off to the farmhouse in the rain, with a coat, to look for help. "Is he your
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brother?" the boys asked in the back seat. ‘He's a devil with a car, isn't he?-and according
to his story he must be with the women.’ ‘He's mad," I said, "and yes, he's my brother’
(Kerouac, On the Road 142)
The first paragraph takes place when they are driving through the Nevada desert with
“two tourists and a fag” in the backseat. Dean is dodging trucks at the last second and
performing all kinds of reckless maneuvers, and the passengers, except Sal (“I wasn't scared at
all; I knew Dean”) are terrified and think he is a madman. Suddenly, Dean stops the car and
starts to sleep, what reinforces this idea of craziness and unpredictability. When the passengers
complain to Sal, he denies that Dean is crazy and sits back, relaxed. He also refers to Dean as
“poorchild Angel Dean”, which connects back with the theme of sanctity.
In contrast, in the second quotation, just some pages later, Sal affirms that Dean is
actually mad. Sal is angry with him, and he judges things differently in this state. However, he
still maintains that he is his brother, showing his loyalty to his great friend. It is also noteworthy
how Sal refers in the first extract to Dean as an angel, and in the second one the boys call him
a devil: Dean’s madness goes through all forms, both good and evil (even though his intention
is normally innocent).
Dean’s madness inspired the rest of the members of the Beat Generation. His genuine
excitement for travelling and discovering new things and the volatility of his decisions
fascinated Kerouac and the rest of his friends, influencing their mindsets and Kerouac’s
spontaneous style of writing.
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2.2.6. Alcohol and drugs
Substance use (and abuse) is another subject that inspired the Beats, they used drugs
and alcohol to create literature (On the Road was written by Kerouac under the effects of
Benzedrine (amphetamine), Ginsberg claimed having written some of his best works under the
influence of peyote, amphetamines or LSD, and an important part of the work of Burroughs
addresses his heroin addiction), to experiment new sensations, or to alter their mindset in order
to make things happen.
In the novel, Sal is portrayed drinking consistently, both to celebrate the good times or
to drown his sorrows, and he and his friends also take multitude of drugs during their travels.
At this regard, it is relevant to note that Kerouac died of cirrhosis two decades later, and
Cassady’s mysterious death would happen after a wedding party in San Miguel de Allende,
Mexico, where he took unknown quantities of secobarbital before collapsing in the railroad
tracks and eventually pass away.
Thus, substance consumption was common in the Beat environment, and Kerouac gave
a good account of it in his book.
Alcohol is the most featured substance in On the Road:
And I went to all the doors in this manner, and pretty soon I was as drunk as anybody
else. Come dawn, it was my duty to put up the American flag on a sixty-foot pole, and
this morning I put it up upside down and went home to bed. When I came back in the
evening the regular cops were sitting around grimly in the office. (Kerouac, On the Road
42)
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Sal and his friends get drunk constantly during their travels. Words “wine”, “beer” and
“whiskey” appear more than 60 times throughout the novel. Alcohol is used by the protagonists
of the book to provoke entertainment: the experiences that they live while drunk are often
bizarre and result in anecdotes.
Tea (marijuana) is other of the drugs that are featured in the story:
Dean was popeyed with awe. This madness would lead nowhere. I didn’t know what
was happening to me, and I suddenly realized it was only the tea that we were smoking;
Dean had bought some in New York. It made me think that everything was about to
arrive - the moment when you know all and everything is decided forever. (Kerouac,
On the Road 82)
Sal describes how the drug gives him the impression of having reached some kind of
supreme knowledge, making him feel that the present moment is vital, as if the future of
everything depended on something that was arriving imminently. These sensations can be
explained by the use of marijuana, which causes effects such as altered thinking and distorted
sense of time.
But the most remarkable aspect of Sal’s thinking at this moment is that it is reminiscent
of Dean’s behaviour even when he is sober: he is obsessed with “knowing time” and affirming
that “everything is fine”, and it is while intoxicated when Sal is most capable to understand the
frenetic mind of Dean.
The following paragraph relates Old Bull’s addiction to heroin:
He had bought this house in New Orleans with some money he had made growing blackeyed peas in Texas with an old college schoolmate whose father, a mad-paretic, had
40
died and left a fortune. Bull himself only got fifty dollars a week from his own family,
which wasn’t too bad except that he spent almost that much per week on his drug habit
- and his wife was also expensive, gobbling up about ten dollars’ worth of benny tubes
a week. Their food bill was the lowest in the country; they hardly ever ate; nor did the
children - they didn’t seem to care. (Kerouac, On the Road 91)
William Burroughs’ (Old Bull Lee) common-law wife was Joan Vollmer. They met in
1944, and by 1945 they moved together with Joan’s daughter to an apartment in New York,
where William and Joan developed their addictions to morphine and Benzedrine, respectively.
They had a son in 1947, William S. Burroughs Jr., and moved to New Orleans in 1948.
This addiction is reflected in the extract, along with their precarious living conditions.
Old Bull and his wife value drugs over food or the well-being of their children.
The last excerpt reveals the peak of drug use in the narrative:
We hit all the dull bars in the French Quarter with Old Bull and went back home at
midnight. That night Marylou took everything in the books; she took tea, goofballs,
benny, liquor, and even asked Old Bull for a shot of M, which of course he didn’t give
her; he did give her a martini. She was so saturated with elements of all kinds that she
came to a standstill and stood goofy on the porch with me. It was a wonderful porch
Bull had. It ran clear around the house; by moonlight with the willows it looked like an
old Southern mansion that had seen better days. In the house Jane sat reading the want
ads in the living room; Bull was in the bathroom taking his fix, clutching his old black
necktie in his teeth for a tourniquet and jabbing with the needle into his woesome arm
with the thousand holes; Ed Dunkel was sprawled out with Galatea in the massive
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master bed that Old Bull and Jane never used; Dean was rolling tea; and Marylou and I
imitated Southern aristocracy. (Kerouac, On the Road 94)
Five different substances are mentioned in this paragraph: marijuana, barbiturates,
Benzedrine, alcohol, and morphine. The description of Old Bull’s “fix” is absolutely explicit,
and the comment about his arm makes obvious the degree of his addiction.
Drugs and alcohol are recurrent themes in Kerouac’s work, and it is reflected in On the
Road how the Beats treat this substance consumption as a common thing, which the author
never tried to hide.
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3. Conclusions
This dissertation has gathered the main ideas of the Beat Generation, determined their
origin and their consequences, and interpreted their portrayal in On the Road.
The historical context of the Beats (from the late 1930s to the 1960s) has been studied,
taking into account pivotal moments in American history such as the Second World War and
the subsequent post-war economy, and determining their impact in the ethos of the Beat
Generation. This way, it has been demonstrated how the sociopolitical and cultural events
preceding the Beat Generation shaped their thinking and their possibilities, explaining the
motivation behind their actions and their literature, which were revolutionary in an era of
conformity.
It has also been reflected the repercussion of their innovations in the following decades,
which were marked by countercultural movements (beatniks, hippies) and social progress (civil
rights movement, sexual revolution). The implication and opinion of the Beats with regard to
these phenomena has also been analyzed, particularly the animosity of Jack Kerouac towards
these. The author was bothered by the comparison between Beats and hippies: While his
generation was focused on the ideas of independence and individuality, the hippies represented
a collectivity and social commitment that he did not regard positively.
This investigation has been combined with a study of their literature, necessary to
appreciate the cultural heritage of the Beat Generation: Six concepts (nonconformity,
spirituality, sexual freedom, madness, music, alcohol and drugs) have been chosen as the most
representative motifs of the group, and the presence of these in the most popular Beat work, On
the Road, has been analyzed, explaining the meaning behind these ideas. Three or four instances
of each idea have been selected, contextualized and commented, paying especial attention to
43
the connection between these themes throughout the novel and the archetypal function of Dean
Moriarty, whose behavior and ideas are used to represent the unconventional ideals of the Beats
regarding these six concepts.
To sum up, this study has served to illustrate the pioneering role of the Beats in
American society, their philosophy concerning the issues of their era, and the reflection of their
beliefs in On the Road.
44
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