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On The Road And The American Dream

1668 Words7 Pages

With drugs, sex, and typewriters at the tips of their fingers, the Beat Generation held the 1950s and many future generations in their palms with their rapid, spontaneous lifestyles and reputations of adventures so… beat. One of the most well-known novels from their literary movement and a prime example of their ways of life was On the Road, written by Jack Kerouac, noted as ‘The King of the Beats’ by many (Morgan xx). And while many critics believe the novel to be a piece of writing that “[leaves] a smirch on the configuration of classic American literature” with its scandalous topics and appraising following, the message of Kerouac’s most famous book may not only reflect on the fast-paced lives of the Beat Generation during that time period but also on the state of America and the toll that their lives have taken on the American Dream (Vopat 1). On the Road, as a story of Kerouac’s personal tales, serves to reiterate a familiar story of a pair of boys going against the current and striking it out on their own with the Beatific message that the American Dream, that had once been “innocent, young, [and] full of promise”, has been destroyed, crippled by its intense quest for a freedom that has long been deemed unrealistic (Vopat 7).

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