UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA ABSTRACT Jack Kerouac was a well-known American writer who was famous for his spontaneous prose in all of his autobiographical works. In the first chapter, we refer about the most important characteristics about Jack Kerouac’s life. We illustrate Kerouac’s early years, his beginning in writing with his early works. Moreover, his mature life during his days from the university to the time he became a famous writer and the description of his death. In the second chapter, we show the origins and the analysis of On the Road. In which we introduce the characters and review the situations in which Jack and his friends where involved during each trip. We also take into account the changes this novel had before its publication and the opinions about it. AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 1 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA Finally, the last two chapters contain important aspects. The third one tell us about the “Beat Generation”, its origins, members, what they did, and the different elements that characterized them; for instance: literature, fashion, women, etc. Moreover, in the fourth chapter, we present their lifestyle, the different liberations that appeared because of them and the music which used to identify the Beats. Key words: On the Road, “Beat Generation”, spontaneous prose, lifestyle, members, trips, liberation, characters, music, works. AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 2 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I: JACK KEROUAC’S BIOGRAPHY 1.1 Early life 1.2 Early works 1.3 Mature life 1.4 Later works 1.5 Jack Kerouac’s death CHAPTER II: ON THE ROAD CHARACTERISTICS 2.1. Origins 2.2 Analysis about the novel On the Road 2.2.1 Analysis 2.3 Changes within the novel 2.3.2 Major Characters AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 3 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA 2.3.3 Minor Characters 2.3.4 Manuscript 2.4 The critics of the novel CHAPTER III: “BEAT GENERATION” 3.1 Concept of the “Beat Generation” 3.2 Members of the “Beat Generation” 3.3 Facts 3.3.1 Book by the “Beat Generation” 3.4 Beat Elements 3.4.1 The Beat and Literature 3.4.2 The Beats and Cinema 3.4.3 The Beats and Fashion AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 4 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA 3.4.4 The Beats and the road 3.4.5 The Beats and outsiders 3.4.6 The Beats and women 3.4.7 Modernism CHAPTER IV: INFLUENCES OF THE BOOK ON THE ROAD ON AMERICAN CULTURE AND YOUTH 4.1 Lyfestyle 4.1.1 Dressing 4.1.2 The Beatnik stereotype 4.1.3 Transition to the “Hippie” era 4.1.4 Bohemian and Hippie Lifestyles 4.1.5 Drug usage 4.2 Liberation 4.2.1 Espiritual Liberation AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 5 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA 4.2.2 Sexual Liberation 4.2.3 African American Liberation 4.3 Music 4.3.1 Jazz 4.3.2 Rock and roll CONCLUSIONS FOOTNOTES BIBLIOGRAPY AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 6 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación “JACK KEROUAC’S ON THE ROAD AND ITS INFLUENCES ON THE ‘BEAT GENERATION’” Tesis previa a la obtención del título de Licenciada en Ciencias de la Educación, especialidad de Lengua y Literatura Inglesa. DIRECTOR: Dr. Ion Youman AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López Cuenca-Ecuador 2010 AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 7 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA DEDICATION This present work is dedicated firstly to our great God and then our family, who always gave us their unconditional support for getting our goals. Diana and Denis AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 8 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA KNOWLEDGMENT We want to express our deep and sincere grateful to God and all the people who helped us in many ways to finish our thesis, especially Dr. Ion Youman who gave us of his time and knowledge to develop and finish our investigative work. AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 9 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA INTRODUCTION Jack Kerouac was an American Poet. He was born in 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Jack is thought to be one of America’s most influential writers. In 1957, he published his most famous book, On the Road. It was an inspiration to the generation of 1950s and 1960s to take off and travel across America in search of freedom and adventure. His childhood was deeply marked by the death of his older brother Gerard. When he was at 17, he began to take a more serious interest in writing because of a knee injury that prevented him of becoming a major football star. During his visit to some relatives, he became friends with Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso. These writers formed the nucleus of what came to be known as the “Beat Generation”. AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 10 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA They were a group of writers who would push literary boundaries and were open to all new experiences. This work is important for us because it represents one of the reasons for what American society changed in terms of literature and lifestyle. Jack Kerouac’s book On the Road had an amazing influence mainly on the “Beat Generation”. It was considered as a “Bible” for the members of this movement. Also, it had a great interest among people, especially in youth. Since this literary work differs from the others because of the spontaniety in its writing. When the book was originally released, The New York Times hailed it as “the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance” of Kerouac’s generation. The novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 11 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA Jack Kerouac had wrote many novels using the same style of writing such as The Town and the City, The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, among others, being On the Road the most famous one. It is an autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friend across the America’s mid-century. It was inspired by jazz, poetry, drug experiences and sexual promiscuity. Many of the names and details of Kerouac's experiences are changed in the novel. On the Road is the story of two young men, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, who travel anxiously back and out across the American continent by seeking thrills, finding in one of them to Neal Cassady (Dean Moriarty in the novel). These characters in real life people were what came to be known as the “Beat Generation”. AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 12 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA Every episode in the novel was inspired by real life events. The book would probably shocked readers also today. Many critics attacked the work as evidence of the increasing immorality of American youth. Other critics saw it as an original work. American readers were fascinated with the bohemian lifestyle of the characters. It turned the novel into a bestseller. Kerouac wrote the novel in an original way just as it happened, not following the same style as the other writers named during the history. Therefore, Kerouac edited On the Road himself several times over the years before presenting it to a publishing company. He had even begun to write the first version in French, his first language, which is one of the many reasons for its delayed publication. This work also reflects important themes like immigration, the place of the women in the society, AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 13 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA African American people, religion and the way of dressing. All of them make the book a tool of inspiration for many people who feel identified with this novel. AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 14 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA CHAPTER I JACK KEROUAC’S BIOGRAPHY AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 15 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA Jack Kerouac, American novelist and poet. 1.1 EARLY LIFE Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac1 was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1922. His parents, Leo- Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Levesque, had emigrated separately from rural Quebec to New Hampshire, where they met and married before moving to Lowell; Kerouac’s mother worked in a shoe factory, and his father worked as a printer. None of the houses of their part of Lowell were anything fancy. It was a neighborhood and town of working people. But on March 12, 1922, happiness filled the second floor of the apartment at 9 Lupine Road , Lowell, Massachusetts. That evening a baby boy was born to Leo-Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Levesque Kerouac. The French Canadian couple named their son Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac. At the beginning, they called him Jack or Ti Jean2. AUTORAS: Denis Tenesaca Benenaula Diana Ramón López 16 UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA Jack was the Kerouacs’ third child. Their little girl, Caroline was born on October 25, 1918, in Lowell, Massachusetts she was three and half years old. Jack’s older brother, Gerard was born on August 23, 1916, was five and half. But he died at the age of nine in 1926, from rheumatic fever, an event later described in Jack’s novel Visions of Gerard. Leo and Gabrielle were immigrants from Quebec, the French-speaking province of Canada. Their ancestors had been immigrants too, travelling across the ocean from France to Canada in the 18th century.