JACK KEROUAC

“On The Road”

Jack Kerouac 1922-1969 American

novelist and poet

-Literary iconoclast- He became a pioneer of Beat

Generation and hippie movement together with Allen

Ginsberg- He inspired artists like Bob Dylan, Eddie Vedder and

the Beatles.

He deals with topics such as spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, drugs, travel and poverty.

He is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing and his major work are: On The

Road, The Subterraneans, Big Sur.

He went to Columbia University and there he met Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William Burroughs. He quit school his sophomore year and joined the Merchant Marine starting the travels of his youth which would become the basis of ON THE ROAD (1957).

He typed the first draft of the book on a fifty-foot-long roll of paper. It is characterized by long

stream-of-consciousness sentences, page-long

paragraphs.

This work describes the rising, dissatisfied fringe of the young generation of the late forties

and early fifties. The context in which the book have been

written is that one after the Great Depression and World

War II and before the turmoil of ‘60s. It’s a kind of expression of

restless and idealistic youth who want something more

than conformity.

“On the road” is the most famous work of the Beat

Generation. Also the main characters are based

on Kerouac’s friends.

In the winter of 1947, Sal Paradise, a young writer with an intellectual group of friends, among them the poet Carlo Marx, meets the reckless and joyous Dean Moriarty, fresh out of another stint in jail and newly married, camed to New York City .

Dean fascinates Sal, and their friendship begins with three years of restless journeys back and forth across the country.

Bus rides, hitchhiking escapades, finally Sal reaches his much-dreamed-of west to join Dean and the others in Denver.

“On the road” summary

The next year, Dean comes east to Sal again, foiling Sal's stable life once more, and they drive west together, with more crazy adventures on the way at Bull Lee's in New Orleans, ending in San Francisco this time.

In the spring, Sal goes to Denver alone, but Dean soon joins him and they go south all the way to Mexico City this time.

Perceptive Sal, who at the beginning is weakened and depressed, gains in joy and confidence and finds love at the end. Sal and Dean turn out to have a lot more in common.

Sal Paradise - The narrator, a young writer. Account of Kerouac.Dean Moriarty - The hero, a reckless, energetic, womanizing young man from Colorado who has been in and out of jail. Account of Neal Cassidy.Carlo Marx - A good friend of Sal and Dean's, a brooding poet who is sensual and energetic.Account of Allen Ginsberg.Old Bull Lee - a long-time friend of Sal and Carlo, the teacher of their group. A traveler, writer, and junkie. Account of William Burroughs.Sal's aunt - She is tolerant, supportive, and kind. Sal lives at her house in Paterson, New Jersey, and Long Island. Throughout Sal's wanderings, she sends him money. Chad King - Sal's friend from Denver; young, slim, blond and soft-spoken. He is interested in philosophy, anthropology, and pre historic Indians. Roland Major - A friend with whom Sal lives briefly in Denver. Major is a Hemingway-esque writer who is scornful of "arty" types but snobby himself, often talking to Sal about Europe and fine wines. Most of the characters represents real life people that are in Kerouac’s life.

The main characters

Beat generation, which includes Jack Kerouac, also involved the field of music and influenced the emergence of bands like the Beatles. Beat groups usually had simple guitar-dominated line-ups, with vocal harmonies and catchy tunes.

The most common instrumentation of beat groups featured lead, rhythmic and bass guitars plus drums, as popularised by TheBeatles .

Beat music: THE BEATLES

The most distinctive characteristic of the music was the strong beat, using the backbeat common to rock and roll and rhythm and blues.Beat music developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. The beat movement provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music, including the format of the rock groups. Particularly the Beatles marked an era in music, costume, fashion and pop art. They are considered a phenomenon of mass communication of global proportions and considered among the greatest expressions of contemporarymusic, after several decades of their official dissolution.According to estimates by the Guinness Book of Records, it is the mostcommercially successful musical group of all time with over a billion records sold and for the magazine Rolling Stone the Beatles are the greatest artists of all time.