Daniela Masiariková Oktáva Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac ( ) whole name: Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac ancestors from french noble family born on March 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts studies at Columbia University in NY joined the US Navy in 1943, but he had to leave (he was allowed to be psychologically unsuitable) three times married died in 1969 in Florida

Kerouac - writer After finishing his studies, he met a group of artists, poets and writers – among them was Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady Important representative of the Beat generation „The Beats“ protested against the consumers, civilization conveniences and conventions Kerouac‘s writing is like a natural stream of thoughts He designated the piece as the spontaneous prose or also the report from a road.

Interests in the book The piece was written in 1951, but it was published in 1957 Writting of this book took only 3 weeks There are author‘s real experiences, his friends, on whom some characters are based (e.g. Carlo Marx represents Allen Ginsberg, Dean Moriarty – Neal Cassady, Old Bull Lee – William Burroughs and of course Sal Paradise is Jack Kerouac) Storyline was written on the roll of paper K. rewrited only a few last „pages“, because a dog ate them

On the Road- characters Sal Paradise- main character, a young writer, who is very gentle, sensitive and vulnerable and he admires Dean Dean Moriarty – Sal‘s friend, he is foot-loose, full of contrasts and vitality and he has a lot of experiences, he spent his childhood in houses of correction The other characters: Marylou, Camille, Carlo Marx, Old Bull Lee, Terry…

Plot The book represents Kerouac‘s travelling across the USA – it is an autobiographical work Fates of Sal and Dean are intertwined throughout the book and always meet „on the road“ Sal Paradise is writer and he meet Dean Moriarty in New York. Dean asks him to learn write a novels. They start their long journey across whole America (Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, NY...) Sal travels by truck, afoot or hitch-hike. In Denver he meets Dean‘s friends, they live nightlife, drink some alcohol and take some drugs – they pine for freedom In San Francisco - Sal takes a job as a night watchman, but he is soon on the road again He meets a girl on the bus to LA. She is Mexican and her name is Terry, she has run away from her husband. They spend some time (few months) together. Sal takes another job - as a picker of cotton, but he leaves Terry and comes back to NY other journeys and events follow - Marylou – one of Dean‘s girlfriends –leaves him and stays with Sal, but then Sal is also left The last trip directs to Mexico City - Sal is sick. They return to NY. He falls in love with Laura. Dean proposes to Sal to move to San Francisco, but Sal refuses it and Dean sets off to the West alone

PROSCONS We can find every symbols typical of beat generation – such as travelling, alcohol, drugs, freedom, jazz, love, sexual experiences... Simple, understandable language Originality of conception We get to know Kerouac‘s life – there are many autobiographical elements Too many characters – it is difficult to take bearings in the storyline There is no involution, the piece consists of many events or adventures – it is also called „report from the road“ Retold version is too brief and quite boring

Vocabulary barrack – kasárna stale – zvětralý, oschlý ditch – příkop, strouha grin – úšklebek, cenit zuby mend – zlepšit, spravit, uzdravit se gloomy – sklíčený, ponurý, tmavý, temný