Artifact 2: Analytical Research Paper: The Legacy Of The Beat Generation
The Legacy Of The Beat Generation: Finding Refuge From Within And Going Against The Grain
Jack Kerouac’s Clarion call in the mid-twentieth century brought many new changes to a post-war America by pioneering the Beat Generation. Kerouac and his friends inspire the beat movement through their free and exploratory lifestyles. The Beat Generation brought social progress to the US through its descriptions of homosexuality in a period where the word was essentially forbidden, much less the practice. The beat movement eventually lost its original intent (as Kerouac saw it), and the idea of what the Beat Generation represented was soon at the whims of the collective public’s ideologies and interpretations.
The age the Beat Generation entered into had ideas that strongly contradicted those of beatniks (a name that was later attributed to those of the Beat Generation). In 1959, the United States was run by men preoccupied with their own moral righteousness, and obsessed with the sins of others (McNally 271). Before Kerouac and Ginsberg brought about the ideals of a Beat Generation, the theme of the day in America was conformity. Every man, woman, and child had a place in society that they would follow whether it was working a nine-to-five job or being a stay at home mother. If they broke this mold, they would suffer the consequences of societal ostracism. However, Keroauc and other founders of the Beat Generation found inspiration in alternative values. One new idea Kerouac and the Beat Generation introduced regards being open and honest about their feelings, and moreover, willing to share them with each other wholeheartedly (Tytell 3). This spirit of open declaration of one’s personal and inner thoughts contradicted the sentiments of the period, which valued keeping private life private. (Tytell 4). This nakedness of the mind also corresponded to a nakedness of the soul (Tytell 4). Many major figures of the Beat Generation such as Kerouac and Ginsberg went against the grain of their society’s common values and believed in escaping into nature, man’s origins, and in Kerouac’s case, the open road (Tytell 4). Holistically, the Beat Generation represented an accumulating dissatisfaction with the “American values of progress and power” (Tytell 4). This is a major aspect of the beat movement that eventually inspired the counterculture of the hippie generation as well.
Jack Kerouac showed very mixed feelings when it came to accepting homosexuality as he and his friends journeyed through the Beat Generation. The Cold War period that surrounded America around the time On The Road was published had a zero tolerance policy for homosexuality (Napelee 74). As a result most gay references from the 1957 publication of On The Road, both explicit and implicit, were omitted of the book (Napelee 72). Although Kerouac struggled with his personal feelings when it came to a person’s sexual orientation, the audience can identify examples of the author’s toleration of homosexuality in On The Road (Napelee 74). Both Kerouac and Cassady have multiple experiences with women in the book, which shows that neither of them are definably homosexual. However some of the gay experiences they encounter in On The Road shows that they do not carry the inherited rejection of alternative lifestyles that the Cold War period often insisted upon (Napelee 74). One clear example of this comes as Dean and Sal ride with the older gay man who advances on Dean at a hotel one night. In the original edition of On The Road that was shown unedited, Dean has sex with the man in an attempt to exchange the act for money (Napelee 74). Even in the edited version we see Dean entertaining the idea of a monetary exchange with the gentleman for Dean’s services. It is obvious through the text that Dean treats the man as an opportunity for gain and not necessarily a partner. However, the important aspect of this scene is that neither Dean nor Sal are proactively rejecting the idea of homosexuality, which is a revolutionary idea for this period in American history.
Additionally, Kerouac knew and was friends with many homosexuals across the country not limited to his very close friends Ginsberg and Burroughs (Napelee 74). Kerouac was very fond of both Ginsberg and Burroughs and never rejected their friendship simply because of their sexual identities, which he was well aware of (Napelee 74).
On the other hand, we also see Kerouac carrying many mixed views on homosexuality in the book that slightly blur the lines as to his views on the subject. For instance when Sal Paradise (Kerouac) is at a bar in San Francisco, he pulls a gun on a “queer” for the thrill of it (Napelee 74). He also notes that he is not quite sure why he did this and thought it might be because of loneliness. Many Kerouac scholars have attributed this to the author’s mixed feelings on homosexuality and perhaps even his own sexual identity (Napelee 74). Whether or not this is true, Kerouac provides identifiable references to homosexuality in On The Road. Through Kerouac’s lack of outright rejection of the alternative lifestyle, we see a progressive ideology emerge in a period where being gay was not an option in popular society.
The Beat Generation gained much of its popularity in the 1950’s and 1960’s through media outlets, who were often critical and condescending of the movement (McNally 271). During the rise of the Beat Generation, very few Americans had read any major works of the movement such as On The Road or Howl, but many knew what a beatnik was through television (McNally 271). Maynard Krebs, a TV star on the Dobie Gillis show was the most recognizable beatnik in 1959, far more so than Kerouac or Ginsberg (McNally 271). He attained this fame as a beatnik through his stereotypical role on his show where he was shown as goofy, illiterate, stupid, unmotivated, and accident prone (McNally 271). However, he was also shown with the virtues of adolescence such as truthfulness, loyalty, generosity, and love (McNally 272). Other shows would depict beatniks as criminals and violence seekers who participate in rape and assault (McNally 272). Perhaps the most common depictions of the Beat Generation that popular media exhibited was of lazy bums who were cynical and out of place in society. This is one example of how Kerouac’s gift to America, the Beat Generation, began to turn on the author in this case through television.
Kerouac and Ginsberg also began receiving attacks from other directions (McNally 274). The popular media, literary critics, and major social figures chided them as well (McNally 274-275). This accumulative assault led Kerouac to a dark place as he began drinking heavily and battling bouts of depression (McNally 275).
Even though Kerouac thought that the Beat Generation had become derailed and lost in translation, the impactful effects of the movement would slowly be built over decades. As Ginsberg and Kerouac’s movement began spreading across the country, it began taking on new meanings for the new audiences it entertained (Nicoletti 4). One major interpretation that derived from Kerouac’s On The Road, was that the book contained major social and political connotations instead of the purely philosophical and poetic influences Kerouac originally voiced (Nicoletti 4). This evolution of the beat movement from philosophical into political interpretations is a major part of what eventually strained Kerouac and Ginsberg’s friendship (Nicoletti 5). Kerouac detested the political ideals that so many took from his works, while Ginsberg and other major beat figures embraced and promoted them, deriving postwar political and economic perspectives from the rebellious nature of the beat origins (Nicoletti 4). While Ginsberg and others added fuel to the political aspirations that became a byproduct of original beat ideals, Kerouac steered clear of any development that went beyond literary means (Nicoletti 4).
The most renowned accomplishment that the Beat Generation influenced was the coming of the counter-culture of the hippie generation that succeeded it (Nicoletti 7). Despite Kerouac’s public claims of detachment from any political derivation of his generation, the way he presented himself and his friends in such novels as On The Road creates clear links with his attitudes and experiences and the counterculture of the hippies (Nicoletti 7). The hippie culture that spawned out of the Beat Generation drew clear influences from Kerouac’s writing, and Kerouac later embraced the movement he inspired (Nicoletti 6). Later in life Kerouac agreed that the Hippie movement part of an evolution of the Beat Generation and identified with the hippies stating “We’re just the older ones” (Nicoletti 6). So through the co-creation of the Beat Generation, and through the eventual inspiration for the hippie counterculture, Keourac’s clarion call in the 1950’s had a lasting impact on America.
Works Cited
Napelee, Dan. “On The Road: The Original Scroll; Or, We’re Not Queer, We’re Just Beats.” Explicator 69.2 (2011): 72-75. Academic Search Complete. Web.17 Mar. 2014.
Nicoletti, Todd. “A Guide to Jack Kerouac: The Influences And History Behind His Literature.” LOGOS: A Journal Of Undergraduate Research 3 (2010): 1-16. Academic Search Complete Web. 17 Mar. 2014.