Throughout the twentieth century, we have been
witness to several movements which have helped to shape the face of American
culture. Collectively these movements have modified the way we, as Americans,
think and behave. One of the most
influential literary movements of this century has been that of the Beat
movement. By using various literary techniques, along with non-conformist
lifestyles as a basis for their writing, the beats were able to stir things up
and shock society. They stormed and looted the impenetrable stronghold of
serious literature. The beat generation opened up the eyes of the world to the
unconventional, and by doing so, made its mark as the most significant literary
movement of this century.
The beats were a small group of writers and
intellects who were opposed to a totalitarian America. An American society
which was based on mass consumption and mass conformity, leaving very little
room for individualism. The beats, of which
Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs are best known today,
rebelled against American culture through their literary works. These works were often based on the beats’
own experiences, which came to increasingly include drugs, sex, and Jazz.
Kerouac,
Ginsberg, and Burroughs became acquainted with each other in the vicinity of
Columbia University in the mid-1940’s.
They remained friends while motivating each others individualistic
writing efforts, however, it was more then ten years after that, in the 1950’s
before publishers began to take their work seriously.
Jack Kerouac
coined the term "beat" during a conversation with Herbert Hunke. Beat
was originally used to describe Kerouac’s close network of friends, consisting
mainly of artists, writers, and criminals, only later did it represent an
entire movement. Kerouac felt the word
beat represented the notion that he, along with his friends, were beaten down
by the government, beaten down by the police, beaten down by any and all controlling
institutions, and for a while, beaten down from the literary world. Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs all
sustained the desire to keep the beat, to celebrate the true spirit of the
lower class, which to them, happens to be the real beat generation.
The beats wrote
literature and poetry, it was here where they began to experiment with new
writing styles, and new ways of living life. These new experiment methods
pressed the notion of freedom to a new limit while, breaking societies hold on
what freedom is suppose to mean. The beats engaged in escapades that included
crime, hedonistic parties, and mind altering drugs. It was the perfect
combination of non-conformist desires to live life to its fullest, along with
brilliance in writing, that made the writers of the beat generation
eye-catching to the public. Everywhere they went they rejoiced in the splendor
of life: nature, writing, art, and experience.
The two artists
who are the focus for this paper are Jack Kerouac, and William S Burroughs.
Although the two were prominent and defining members of the beat movement, they
oddly enough did not have much in common. Their writing techniques are
contrary, as well as their lifestyles. Kerouac’s writing is a direct
consummation of his immutable personal loneliness. It was during his life
experiences, whether it was binge drinking, wild sex, or lunacy on the road,
where he attempted to quench his desire to find himself, and in the process
hoped to eradicate his personal loneliness. On the other hand, Burroughs’ writing
is a unique interpretation of altered states of consciousness due to his heavy
involvement in mind altering drugs, such as heroin. It was through these
visions and experiences where he wrote his most creative and peculiar work.
Jack Kerouac
described America. We are able to experience brilliant sunsets through his
eyes, and we are almost able to taste the potent Jack Daniel’s he loosely
swallowed down. His collection of writings make up his life experience growing
up, working, and traveling through America. Jack Kerouac lead an almost tragic
life. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, to a French Canadian family. As an adolescent he found himself
unchallenged by those around him, they bored him. As a result he spent his
time making trips to New York City,
frequenting jazz clubs and museums. As Kerouac grew older he was constantly
forming important friendships with other boys, as he would continue to do
throughout his life.
Kerouac had an
early interest in writing and literature. He would create stories at a young
age, and read novels by Thomas Wolfe, the writer he modeled himself after. At
seventeen years old, he obtained a football scholarship to Columbia University.
His family followed him there and settled in Ozone Park, Queens. This was at
the start of World War II, so Kerouac dropped out to enlist in the navy. The
navy did not fair him well, he was discharged shortly after his enrollment due
to his refusal to accept military discipline. He served the remainder of the
war as a merchant marine.
After the war
Kerouac returned to Columbia University. It was upon his return where he met
the group of men, mostly criminals and drug dealers, who would become his
eternal friends and the inspiration for his work. This group included: Herbert
Hunke, criminal hero of Kerouac’s underworld, William S. Burroughs, junk
addict, and eventual novelist, Allen Ginsberg, poet and philosopher, and
finally Neal Cassady, the mad hero of ‘On The Road’, which is said to be
Kerouacs most famous novel.
Jack Kerouac’s
first published novel was called ‘The Town and the City’, this work was based
on the style of Thomas Wolfe. It received mixed criticism and sold few copies.
It was not until ‘On the Road’, his
second book, that Kerouac found a voice of his own. ‘On the Road’ was a rather
poetic story of a friendship, and four trips across America. Kerouac used the
technique of spontaneous prose to write ‘On the Road’. The narrator is Sal Paradise, a young
novelist, with an insatiable desire to see America. He maintains a strange, and
at times frustrating relationship with Dean Moriarty ( which is Kerouac’s
real-life friend Neal Cassady).
The part of the
story that held me the most was the ending. It is eminently ambiguous in terms
of its meaning. For example, Sal made plans to go to the Duke Ellington
concert, but he would rather be with Dean. However, Remi Bencoeur and his
girlfriend do not like Dean. So in the end Sal just drives off with his friends
and waves goodbye to Dean. To me, Dean Moriarty is the most magnetic character
in the book, but everybody in the book gets sick of him at some point or
another. Even Sal is forced to realize that he cannot depend on Dean to stick
with him when the going gets rough. We also see that the joyrides get a little
less joyful as they progress. I must pose the question, is it really possible
that people need to grow up? That you cannot go riding around from adventure to
adventure? Luckily, this book does not attempt to answer that question, it just
lets us experience the sights and sounds along the way. ‘On the Road’ received
high critical acclaim and eventually became known as the defying novel of the
beat generation.
Kerouac
eventually wrote ‘Visions of Cody’ in 1951-52, which completed his collection of a life sketch of a man who
traveled all over the country, living for the sake of experience, and recording
his observations of his journey. ‘Visions of Cody’ was also written in a
radical , experimental form. I never experienced anything like ‘Visions of
Cody’ before. I at times wanted to rip my hair out while reading it, yet there
were times I did not want to put it down. It was a challenging read, although,
well worth the effort. The New York Times book review said "to read ‘On
the Road’, but not ‘Visions of Cody’, is to take a nice sightseeing tour, but
to forego the spectacular rapids of Jack Kerouac’s wildest writing." I do
not think I could ever say it better then that. ‘Visions of Cody’ is the
ultimate version of the ‘On the Road’ story.
Through his forty
years, Kerouac was unable to remain in a long-term romantic relationship. He
was married twice, however, both marriages ended within months. In the mid
1960’s he married a childhood friend. She was convenient to have around to help
Kerouac with his aging mother.
Jack Kerouac died
in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1969. He began to vomit blood, and was rushed to
the hospital where he died. The last few years of his life were plagued with
sadness and alcoholism. I find it ironic how sadness and alcoholism enabled him
to express himself the way he did, yet they also took away his expressionism
long before his time.
William S.
Burroughs, now there is a character. As I write about him, I’m getting this
kind of creepy vibe, almost like he is watching me write about him. I could
almost hear his throaty, hoarse laugh. He honestly frightened me, his work
frightened me, and his lifestyle was one of complete mayhem. Burroughs was born
on Feb. 5, 1914, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was raised in an upper-class
society, this did not suit his tastes. Burroughs liked to read, had a
fascination with guns and crime, along with a natural inclination to break
every possible rule. He also experienced and expressed strong homosexual
desires. He could never fit into ‘normal’ society, although he did attend and graduate
from Harvard University.
In his early
thirties he traveled to New York, where he intentionally became a junk addict
(morphine and heroin). He dealt drugs and stole to support his habit. His St.
Louis friend Lucien Carr introduced him to a young crowd studying at Columbia
University, among them was Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac. He was older then
them, but they were impressed by his obvious intelligence. Kerouac and Ginsberg
were interested in Burroughs’ underworld experimentation, though they would not
follow him very far into it. By his mid-thirties Burroughs had still not begun
to write, although he always encouraged Ginsberg and Kerouac.
Writing first
entered Burroughs life as a serious venture in 1950, when his old friend from
Harvard, Kells Elvins, convinced him to write an account of his experiences
with drugs. Burroughs agreed , and after much work he wrote Junkie. Junkie was
not very interesting. It was an easy read, whose graphic nature made me wonder
if Burroughs should have been walking the streets. As I read it I could not
believe that it was autobiographical. After reading Kerouac and then Burroughs
I was a little disappointed, I enjoyed Kerouac’s writing much more.
In 1951 Burroughs
accidentally shot and killed his common-law wife Joan. He was intoxicated one
day, and tried to shoot a glass situated on her head, he of course missed, and
shot her in the head. She was killed instantly. After he was arrested he
escaped from Mexico, to South America.
It was in South America where he officially began his writing career. Burroughs
has said that he thinks it is unfortunate that it took the loss of his wife for
him to find his creative abilities in writing. Burroughs was a homosexual , in
his writings he was very explicit and his orientation, although, he did
maintain a heterosexual relationship, and had a son through it.
His next
publication is ‘Naked Lunch’ in 1959. This book deals with his experiences with
drugs, drug addiction, and the subconscious. His surrealistic style and
dream-like (or nightmare like) descriptions, along with his impressive
experiences, make his writing unique and fascinating. This book slips and
slides and glides through alleyways and canals of utter madness. It is
degrading (he has said some nasty things about women), perverse, yet extremely
clever, in a sick sort of way. The oddest aspect of ‘Naked Lunch’ is Burroughs’
juxtaposition, which in his later books turns into the cut-up technique. This
technique is an experimental prose method, it is a way of exposing word and
image controls and freeing the reader from them. He did not use standard prose,
he used abrupt transformations, and placed chapters in any random order. His
hallucinations were sometimes to hard to bear, but it is not very often you are
able to get insight into the mind of a deeply disturbed, yet brilliant
individual. Whether it was sex with bugs, or sex with his Spanish lover,
Burroughs leaves quite a bit to the imagination, which at times scared me. I
did not think I was even able to visualize some of the things he described.
Burroughs was the
only beat figure not strongly influenced by Buddhist thought. This could be a
telling fact as to why his writing is so creepy. William S. Burroughs died in Lawrence,
Kansas, on August 3, 1997, of a heart attack. This put an end to an his era,
yet he has left behind work that will influence generations of artists to come.
The beat society
used drugs to help free their minds. Benzedrine (speed) was a symbol (and
feeling) of perpetual motion for enhanced creativeness and flow of ideas. The
high from heroin also served to enhance creativeness. All those involved in the
beat movement used drugs with the notion that it will help them on their
literary endeavors.
Jack Kerouac and
William S. Burroughs both contributed much to decline of a strictly narrow
minded society. They were friends, and admired each others work, yet they were
different. Each expressing himself the only way he knew fit, and collectively
impacting our society. Burroughs gave us visuals into his madness, we were able
to experience and appreciate the disease in his mind, which is drug addiction.
Jack Kerouac on the other hand allowed us to travel with him on his journeys.
We felt his loneliness, and watched him drink his sadness away. Both men were
prisoners to their talents. Their passion was brought to fruition through
words, their words were products of drugs, booze, music, experience, and life
long friendships.
Word Count: 2350
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