The Beat Generation Essay Research Paper The

The Beat Generation Essay, Research Paper

The Beat Generation

The Twentieth Century has witnessed several moments which have helped to shape the face of American culture. Each movement has in some way altered the way we, as Americans, think and act. One of the most influential literary movements of this century has been that of the Beat movement. The Beats were initially a small group of individuals situated in New York. The Beat writers were a small group of friends at first, and a movement later. The Beat Generation in literature consisted of a relatively small number of writers, of which Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs are the best known today. All three met in the surroundings of Columbia University in New York City in the mid 1940.s, and they remained close friends. They encouraged each other.s individualistic writing efforts before publishers began to take their work seriously in the late 1950.s. Their purpose was to provoke, to challenge, to question the changes caused by the new technologies , to help Americans to remember that this too was once a place where men could dream of a better future.

The Beats were dissatisfied with America.s blandness. McDonalds and bigger department store chains had Americans eating, dressing and furnishing their homes the same way. The emerging television set within homes had Americans informed and entertained from one single media point. So bland.blah! They felt a lack of purpose in life both socially and culturally, they needed a way out. They found their purpose through literature, social contacts, and freedom. The Beats had a real appreciation for their freedom and fought to expand it.

They liked the ability to pick up and go On the Road, which is the title of Jack Kerouac.s book describing his adventures hitchhiking across country. The Beats would define themselves “as poets in a land of philistines, men seeking spiritual destinies rather than material ones” They set out on journeys trying to find themselves. They set out to impact America socially and culturally, as a result they impacted the country politically. Politicians and Conservatives alike became more and more afraid of the so call “radicals” corrupting the youth.making them think!

They shaped a vision of complete political, spiritual, and sexual liberation, and brought a new kind of realism to art, in which spontaneity and improvisation were stressed. They experienced with new writing styles, such as Kerouac.s “spontaneous prose,” and the new ways of living, experimental methods that pushed the term “freedom” to its society-burdened limit with adventures that included crime, hedonistic parties, and the brilliance of their work that made writers of the Beat generation noticeable to the public. Everywhere they went, they celebrated the beauties of life: nature, literature, artwork, and experience. The Beat Generation cultural movement defied conventional values of the 1950.s and ignited the counterculture of the 1960.s.

The Beat Generation was not a bunch of media hype like today.s “Generation X” which is supposed to encompass millions of people identified solely by age. The Beat Generation was a small group of adult writers based in New York or the San Francisco Bay Area, highly connected to the publishing and writing industry. “If Generation X is like Woodstock, the Beat Generation was like a small dark tavern at two in the morning, with a bunch of old jazz musicians jamming onstage and Jack Kerouac buying rounds at the bar.” (Levi Asher – Literary Kicks)

What is Beat.

The original word meant nothing more than bad or ruined or spent. Jack Kerouac coined the term “beat”, with all it.s hipster significance, during a conversation with Herbert Hunke a junkie, prostitute, petty thug, and aspiring writer he used the expression “Man I.m beat!” which meant that he was tired. Huncke used the term “beat” to describe his general feelings and outlook on life. It was at this time that young people were beginning to feel neglected, rundown, and outcasts. Jack had a field day with this expression. The kind of beatnesss is what described Kerouac and his friends; bright young Americans who.d come of age during the World War II but couldn.t fit in as clean-cut soldiers or complacent young businessmen. They were beat because they didn.t believe in straight jobs and had to struggle to survive. They lived in dirty apartments, sold drugs and committed crimes for food money. They hitchhiked across America because they couldn.t stay still without getting bored

” It.s the beat generation, it.s the beat to keep, it.s the beat of the heart, it.s being beat and down in the world and like old-time lowdown and like in ancient civilizations the slave boatmen rowing galleys to a beat and servants spinning pottery to a beat.” (Kerouac -AngelHeaded Hipster) The term “beat” has a second more spiritual meaning; “beatific” or sacred and holy. Kerouac was a devout Catholic and explained many times that by describing his generation as beat he was trying to capture the secret holiness of the oppressed.

The Beats were soon beat, beaten down by the government, beaten by the police, beaten down by any and all controlling establishments, including, for some time, the literary world, and the only thing Kerouac and Ginsberg and Burroughs had left was the determination to keep the beat, to listen to their hear beats,