On The Road - Kerouac and the Beats

Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: very good, University of Graz (Institute for American Studies), course: Exterior and Interior Journey in US literature and film, language: English, abstract: Introduction . Practically all of Kerouac's books are said to be autobiographical(1) . 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 cf. Seymour Krim, Introduction . Jack Kerouac. Desolation Angels. New York: Coward-McCann, 1965. xxii.