Cadet Michaela Wright
Colonel Ball
ERH 322WX-02 Beat Generation
14 March 2015
The Beat Generation through Kerouac’s Eyes
The Beat Generation was a time of great and many changes in society with regards to lifestyles and ways of living. However, the Beat Generation was never well known until Jack Kerouac began travelling the country in search of the answer of what it meant to be ‘Beat’. Robert Frank, another well-known man of the Beat Generation, travelled to many of the same scenes as Kerouac taking photographs along the way. After long comparisons of Robert Frank and Ann Charters pictures of the Beat Generation times and Jack Kerouac’s writings, it is brought to light that Kerouac’s introduction of the Beat Generation to the world is an accurate one.
Many American citizens did not know what to make of the Beat Generation. It was not accepted in America at this time for people to express their true opinions if they did not mesh with the ideas of that day. When people in their early twenties up to the mid-forties began walking through life without responsibilities, drunk, high on drugs and getting by without any money, it took quite a number of years for ‘average’ citizens to adjust to the idea. In contrast, some never did adjust and remained against the styles of those who considered themselves ‘Beat’ by trying to prevent them from continuing to express their true opinions, some silently disagreed. Kerouac’s writings also prove to be accurate as he records the changes that happened throughout. The definition of what the word ‘beat’ meant changed as time went on and the word of the new group of people spread, “…a new more. “Beat Generation” has simply become the slogan or label for a revolution in manners in America” (Kerouac 363).
In these many outlooks upon the beats however, Jack never described the beats as being an un-American group of individuals who changed their lifestyles in retaliation to the country’s current viewpoints. They simply had different ones that were looking for a way to be expressed. This is an accurate description when comparing the photographs of Robert Frank; of the women who look to not have much money but still fly the American flag. The snapshot of the wealthy looking men in dress suits who have the red, white and blue close by for example. The many men in military uniforms, the American flag in the military recruiting office of which many of the beats served.
It is easy to see that in many of Jack’s writings, the railway, hitchhiking and vehicles were the main modes of transportation for those living the Beat Generation because it was cheap. But according to Kerouac, it was much more than that. “I love the railroad because it is laid out on the land, and requires the eyes of Indians…” (Kerouac 178). “…flat green lettuce fields interlined with brown dirt rows and roads and rails-beyond the milky haze of this dusk is the sea, unseen the Pacific to the Land of the Rising Sun…” (Kerouac 207). Through Jack’s experiences, he brings new meaning to the phrase ‘it is not just about the destination, but the journey itself’ when showing what experiences were had while on the road. Many of the photos found in “The Americans” include automobiles. There is one of African Americans in suits standing around a few cars looking deep in thought. A few children playing in a car and a woman and child starring distantly at the scene outside their car window. Diverse groups of people staring abstractedly out the windows of a train, a couple on a motorcycle. The photo from “Scenes Along the Road” of Neal Cassady and a girl in a car driving together with a description from Neal that reads, “They have no worries, they’re counting the miles, they’re thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they’ll get there…” (Cassady 26).
As said before, some citizens preferred to not get into conflicts with the beats. The exception was religious beliefs. “Gregory Corso opened his shirt and took out a silver crucifix that was hanging from a chain…a strange gang of hoodlums got mad and said ‘What right does he got to wear that?’ (Kerouac 357). Religion was a topic that almost every citizen had an opinion of which holds true in Frank’s pictures. A picture of bumper stickers on a car reading ‘Christ Died For Our Sins’ and ‘Christ Came To Save Sinners’, a woman in a field with a cross in the distance, crosses and religious statues on the sides of the roads. Many people did not, could not, understand how anyone associated with the Beat Generation could consider themselves to be religious when living the way that they did. How could someone could get drunk and stay high and sleep around while still having a moral system? The Beats found a way.
Throughout Jacks writings it is evident that the most important of all of these sights, sounds and places Kerouac experienced while travelling through the country, are the people. Robert Frank must have had a thought process similar since almost every single one of his photographs includes people. Jack could not simply go down the streets and look at people, so different to him. He wanted to know them, to learn their stories. Jack briefly states his thoughts on a few of Frank’s pictures specifically. Anyone can infer by his short descriptions how awe struck with wonder people brought to his heart. “I think Seminole half Negro woman pulling on her cigarette with thoughts of her own, as pure a picture as the nicest tenor solo in jazz” (Kerouac 6). Jack cared for the people he surrounded himself with. “Whether ‘it’s the mild of humankind-ness, of human-kindness, Shakespeare meant, makes no difference when you look at these pictures. Better than a show” (Kerouac 7).
Jack Kerouac has proven time and time again to be an individual, writer and poet like no other. Much of the Beat Generation is accredited to his works. From his beat experiences to his final breaths, Jack will be looked to as someone who brought light through the written word to a generation that was almost lost in time. Thanks to the help of the photography skills of Robert Frank, Kerouac’s accounts are proven to be the accurate of Beat Generation when comparing his writings to the pictures of the time.
Reflective Tag
Being a virgin to all of the works and wonders of the Beat Generation, there were many takeaways upon writing this paper. Learning who Jack Kerouac was for the first time and studying works from other writers of the Beat Generation has shown me what an important man Jack Kerouac really was. As a visual learner, Jack’s writings coupled with Robert Frank’s photographs really opened my eyes to everything that took place during that time. Before taking this class and researching for this paper, I just assumed it was going to be about hippies. But little did I know the differences between the two groups as I learned about the Beat Generation’s existence. People flourished, mistakes were made, lessons were learned, music was created, people spoke their minds and the Beats were happy. it was intriguing learning about how the Beats handled the controversy as well. To say the least, this has been a very educational research project.

Works Cited
Charters, Ann, Ann Charters, and Allen Ginsberg. Scenes Along the Road: Photographs of the Desolation Angels, 1944-1960. New York: Portents/Gotham Book Mart, 1970. Print.
Charters, Ann. The Portable Beat Reader. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Viking, 1992. Print.
Frank, Robert. The Americans. New York: SCALO Publishers in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998. Print.
Kerouac, Jack, and Douglas Brinkley. Road Novels, 1957-1960. New York: Library of America, 2007. Print.
Kerouac, Jack. Book of Sketches, 1952-57. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.
Kerouac, Jack. Doctor Sax: Faust Part Three. New York: Grove Press, 1959. Print.
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