The Literature Book

265

See also: The Red Room 185 ■ The Catcher in the Rye 256–57 ■ Howl and Other Poems 288 ■ Fear and Loathing in Las

Vegas 332

POSTWAR WRITING

The term “beat” simultaneously

held notions of being “beatific”; of

being “beaten” by the punishing

intensity of a hobo existence; and

of a life lived to a jazz “beat.” In the

1950s, tales of the beat movement’s

free lifestyle and reckless ways

shocked mainstream society, and

their writings signaled a radical

reinvigoration of American literature.

The appearance of Jack Kerouac’s

novel, On the Road, in 1957 framed

him as the leading beat novelist.

On the Road details a series of

journeys that Kerouac took between

1947 and 1950. In the book they are

narrated by Sal Paradise (identified

with Kerouac himself) who is often

accompanied on his travels by

Dean Moriarty (the writer Neal

Cassady). A number of other beat

generation writers also appear in

the book, disguised by name only,

such as Allen Ginsberg (“Carlo

Marx”) and William S. Burroughs

(“Old Bull Lee”).

The book has five parts. The

first sees Sal Paradise setting off

for San Francisco in July 1947. Sal

meets Dean Moriarty and the two

launch on a riotous road trip,

hitchhiking and taking buses on

a meandering adventure: partying,

meeting friends, and looking for

girls before finally returning to

New York. The subsequent parts

tell of a series of hedonistic charges

through North America.

Spontaneous prose

The narrative form of On the Road,

which Kerouac referred to as

“spontaneous prose,” was inspired

by an 18-page typed letter that

he received in December 1950

from his friend Neal Cassady.

According to Kerouac, the key to

the prose was to write swiftly and

“without consciousness,” in a

semitrance, allowing the mind to

flow freely, associating sights,

sounds, and senses in a narrative of

absolute immediacy. For example,

as Sal and Dean reach Chicago,

Kerouac writes “Screeching

trolleys, newsboys, gals cutting by,

the smell of fried food and beer in

the air, neons winking—‘We’re in

the big town, Sal! Whooee!’” The

long, fluid, descriptive sentences

and stream-of-consciousness style

mirrored the intensive pace of Sal’s

alcohol-infused, vagrant existence,

while imitating the improvisational

character of jazz music. Kerouac

wrote On the Road in a frenetic

three-week period in April 1951,

fueled by caffeine and drugs.

The result was a manuscript in

wildly creative, original prose—

or “spontaneous bop prosody,” as

Ginsberg called it—that came to

define the beat generation. ■

Jack Kerouac Jack Kerouac was born to French-

Canadian parents in Lowell,

Massachusetts, in 1922. He

studied at Columbia University

where he met Allen Ginsberg,

Neal Cassady, and William S.

Burroughs who would become

fellow leading lights of the beat

generation. Kerouac dropped out

in his second year then joined the

merchant navy, before turning to

writing as a profession. From

1947, he became increasingly

attracted to the whisky-drinking

hobo lifestyle and began his

wandering across America and

Mexico, often visiting various

other beat writers. Those

voyages across the North

American landscape were

relayed in his various roman à

clef writings, friends’ faces only

thinly veiled as protagonists.

Kerouac’s alcoholism led to

cirrhosis and his death in 1969.

Other key works

1950 The Town and the City

1957 On the Road

1958 The Subterraneans

1958 The Dharma Bums

1972 Visions of Cody (published

posthumously)

Kerouac typed On the Road onto

rolls of tracing paper that he had glued

together to avoid having to change

paper and interrupt his creative flow.

The final manuscript was 120-foot long.

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