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- It is a book of ideas and characters more than plot, and through the journeys of the main characters, the reader sees a picture of rebellious American youth and their attempts to subvert the cultural mandates they had been given in order to conform to white middle-class life.
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May 26, 2015 · The novel clearly lacks a conventional plot structure and, while some may be inclined to give Kerouac credit for breaking with convention, I would say that it is an experiment that fails. In the absence of convention, Kerouac has not produced an endearing or intriguing story as a viable alternative.
If you must know one thing about On the Road, is that it doesn't stand out because of its mind-blowing plot. In fact, it is not a plot-driven novel at all. You follow Jack Kerouac's travels throughout America and Mexico, and that's it. What captivates you is his writing style, a writing style the likes of which I had never encountered.
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On the Road is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and drug use.
- Jack Kerouac
- 1957
- Jack Kerouac and on The Road
- Early Influences and Inspiration For The Novel
- Spontaneous Prose?
- The First Book
- The Hitchhiker
- The Car
- A Spiritual Quest?
When it was first published in 1957, On the Roadbecame a soul map for the nascent Beat Generation and turned Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac into a cult figure. Jack's book might be nothing more than a set of undisciplined comings and goings, a series of chaotic journeys involving two youths, one oversexed and one over-mothered. But it's a whole lot g...
In the spring of 1947, Neal Cassady left New York City to return to Denver, where he had arrived almost a year previous. During that time, his relationship with Jack Kerouac had deepened; the two 'were like soul mates' despite the fact that Cassady was a known conman and petty thief. He had come to New York with his pretty young wife LuAnn, burning...
Not so spontaneous, as it turns out. Jack had been experimenting with different writing styles for years. In December 1950, he received a long letter from Neal Cassady describing some of his exploits in Denver. Jack was bowled over by the style, a colourful, spontaneous mix of vivid descriptives, conversation, brief asides and references. It was ra...
All this time, Jack had been working on his first serious novel, The Town and the City,which was eventually published in March 1950, to mixed reviews. It had taken him over three years to complete. The criticism may have hurt but as it turned out was a blessing in disguise as it convinced Jack to leave fiction behind and concentrate on actual event...
Any hitchhiker will tell you that once you set out with just a backpack and your thumb you get a certain buzz of adventure tinged with apprehension. You never know quite what's in store for you as you stand there watching the traffic zoom past. Will you make it round the next bend? What sort of car or van will you end up in, how far will you get an...
For long periods in On the Road,the star of the show is a car, owned by Dean Moriarty. That car is a 1949 Hudson (straight six?) and Sal Paradise sees it for the first time one Christmas whilst at his family's house celebrating. Inside is an exhausted but excited Dean who has driven thousands of miles to see his old friend Sal, for no reason other ...
In March 1956, a few months before On the Roadwas published, Jack hitchhiked to visit the poet Gary Snyder, who lived in California. They spent some weeks exploring the wilderness together before Snyder left for a new life in Japan. Jack moved north to take up a job as a fire watcher in the Cascade Mountains, perhaps feeling a need to escape from t...
On the Road is famous for not following a standard plot. In fact, it’s famous for doing a horrible job at being a novel, in the plot sense of what a novel should be. This may have something to do with the fact that Kerouac banged out a manuscript in a few weeks on one long piece of typewriter paper.
Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road” is often considered a defining work of the Beat Generation, as it captures the spirit of the movement through its portrayal of a group of young people traveling across America in search of adventure and meaning.
The manic movement of Sal Paradise in On the Road, with and without Dean Moriarty, is directly patterned after Kerouac's reallife travel during the same period. The novel shocked many readers...
