On The Road - Kerouac and the Beats

by

Andrea Rieger

Table of Contents .

Introduction 2

1. The Biographies of Two Travellers 2
1.1 Jack Kerouac 2
1.2 Neal Cassady 5

2. Other Travellers - `The Beats′ & their Generation 8
2.1 Drugs 10
2.2 Jazz and Bebop 11

3. Their Story - `On the Road′ 12

4. The Two Main Travellers in the Novel 13
4.1 Dean Moriarty 14
4.2 Sal Paradise 16
4.2.1 Sal′s language 19

5. Other Characters 20
5.1 The unnamed aunt 20
5.2 Old Bull Lee 20
5.3 Carlo Marx 21
5.4 Camille 21

6. The Meaning of their Journeys 22

Conclusion 24

Bibliography 25
Primary Sources 25
Secondary Literature 25
Sources from the Internet 26

Introduction .

Practically all of Kerouac′s books are said to be autobiographical¹. In my seminar paper I draw a comparison between the real life of Kerouac and his Beat colleagues and the events depicted in his novel "On the Road". In order to do so, I focus on the biographies of both Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, whose personas build the main characters Sal and Dean. Furthermore, I illustrate the Beat movement - how it came into existence and why - and the attitudes within the Beat Generation. This is of importance to show that Kerouac′s novel "On the Road" not only stands within the tradition of the Beat movement but also defined it.

Another focus is on the development of the novel′s main characters which consequently leads to the question of the meaning of journey in the novel. I demonstrate that at different stages the main characters had different motifs for travelling. In addition, I also show that the journeys changed with the progress of the plot.

1. The Biographies of Two Travellers .

1.1 Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac, named Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on March 12, 1922 to a French-Canadian couple, Leo and Gabrielle. He did not speak English until the age of six because of his French descent. By the time Kerouac was ten, he knew he wanted to be a writer. His earliest inspirations were Thomas Wolfe and a radio show called "The Shadow". Jack′s father published a Lowell newsletter called "The Spotlight", and Jack helped him with the layout and press work for the publication.² As a young teenager, Kerouac wrote his own sportsheet, which he sold to friends. In the early 40s, he wrote for Lowell′s Sun as a sportswriter.

Life in Lowell had become a financial struggle for Jack′s parents: Leo′s once successful printshop began to suffer as well. Jack′s father turned to gambling in order to help the family′s financial situation3. Jack felt that going to college might help restore the Kerouac name and good reputation. He received a football scholarship to Columbia University, but they insisted that he should first go to Horace Mann, a prep school in New York, for a year, what he actually did then.⁴

At age 17, Jack published articles in the “Horace Mann Record”, which was the school newspaper.⁵ In 1941, he spent his first and only year at Columbia. The football plans did not work: Jack broke his leg and was unhappy with his coach′s insistence that he should not not play. To beat it all, Leo lost his business and fell into alcoholism. Jack dropped out of college.⁶

Jack joined the Merchant Marines, and a year later, after the Second World War began, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. During these couple of years, Kerouac sailed to Greenland as well as to Liverpool as a merchant seamen. He was discharged from the Navy for psychiatric reasons.⁷

Frankie Edith Parker, a girl Jack knew from his Columbia days and later his first wife, made Jack meet Allen Ginsberg, Lucian Carr, William Burroughs, and Neal Cassady during these years when he was home from sailing. His new friends, some of them from Columbia University as well, were either writers or wannabe writers, and a deep literary interest tied these men together.⁸ Jack later gave Allen a manuscript he had been working on, and in turn Allen gave the manuscript to one of his professors. This book was published in 1950, as “The Town and the City”.

One of Kerouac′s most influential friends, however, was Neal Cassady, the holy madman who had come to visit New York from Denver. Kerouac and Cassady made a deal that Jack would teach Neal how to write and Neal would teach Jack how to drive. Years later, Kerouac reflects on his relation to Cassady:

[...]

1 cf. Seymour Krim, "Introduction". Jack Kerouac. Desolation Angels. New York: Coward-McCann, 1965. xxii.

2 cf. Gerald Nicosia, Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac. New York: Grove Press, 1983. 21-31.

3 cf. Nicosia 36f.

4 cf. ibid 56.

5 cf. ibid 67.

6 cf. ibid 76-90.

7 cf. ibid 99-105.

8 cf. ibid 114-119.