“Where are we going, man?” “I don’t know but we gotta go.”

1. Life Born in Lowel, Massachusetts in Educated at Columbia University. At the end of WWII, he began travelling across the States.

In New York he met the intellectual Neal Cassidy and the poet Allen Ginsberg. After his hitch-hiking across America with Cassidy, he wrote the novel On The Road (1957). 1. Life

Frightened by his popularity, he became more and more addicted to alcohol. His novel Big Sur (1962) contains an account of the disintegration of all his hopes. He died in 1969 at the age of forty-seven. 1. Life

Major Works by Jack Kerouac The Town and the City, 1950 On the Road, 1957 The Dharma Bums, 1958 The Subterraneans, 1958 Big Sur, 1962 Visions of Gerard, 1963 Vanity of Duluoz, 1968

Invented by Kerouac in Introduced to the public by an article on “New York Times Magazine”. Beat = 1. tired  reaction against capitalism and Puritan middle- class values. 2. beatific  Kerouac’s reverence for certain aspects of Catholicism 2. The term “Beat Generation

Suffix -nik borrowed from Sputnik, a Russian satellite. Their main features: illegal way of life, acting on first impulses. They advocated escapism and created underground culture. 3. The beatniks...

Spiritual and sexual liberation. Liberation from censorship. Decriminalization of the use of marijuana. The evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll and their influence upon artistic movements

The spread of ecological consciousness. Attention to a “second religiousness”. Respect for land and indigenous peoples and creatures 4....and their influence upon artistic movements

The bookThe film

“Because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, (..) the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars” 5. On the Road

Plot Summary In the winter of 1947, the reckless and joyous Dean Moriarty, fresh out of another stint in jail and newly married, comes to New York City and meets Sal Paradise, a young writer with an intellectual group of friends, among them the poet Carlo Marx. Dean fascinates Sal, and their friendship begins three years of restless journeys back and forth across the country. With a combination of bus rides and adventurous hitchhiking escapades, Sal goes to his much-dreamed-of west to join Dean and more friends in Denver, and then continues west by himself, working as a fieldworker in California for awhile, among other things. The next year, Dean comes east to Sal again, foiling Sal's stable life once more, and they drive west together, with more crazy adventures on the way at Bull Lee's in New Orleans, ending in San Francisco this time. The winter after that, Sal goes to Dean, and they blaze across the country together in friendly fashion, and Dean settles in New York for awhile. In the spring, Sal goes to Denver alone, but Dean soon joins him and they go south all the way to Mexico City this time. Through all of this constant movement, there is an array of colorful characters, shifting landscapes, dramas, and personal development. Dean, a big womanizer, will have three wives and four children in the course of these three years. Perceptive Sal, who at the beginning is weakened and depressed, gains in joy and confidence and finds love at the end. At first Sal is intrigued by Dean because Dean seems to have the active, impulsive passion that Sal lacks, but they turn out to have a lot more in common. The story is in the details.

Story of a friendship. Diary-like account of Kerouac’s wanderings across North America. It lacks a central plot  episodic structure. Theme of the journey  an escape from the town and from one’s own past 6. On the Road: structure

Sal (the narrator) stands for Kerouac himself. Dean stands for Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassidy. Sal and Dean are linked to the same restlessness. They keep on moving without a fixed goal. 6. On the Road: structure

A fictionalised Neal Cassidy. He lives for “kicks”  moments of intense experience and pleasure. He is the symbol of the attempt to live every moment with intensity. 7. On the Road: Dean Moriarty, the protagonist

Spontaneous and episodic. Natural explosion of feelings and thoughts. Unsophisticated language, defined “hip talk”. Vital, authentic, alive and individual language. Opposite to conventional language. Break with the impersonality of the artist. 8. On the Road: style and language

9. On the Road: the film “Coming soon”

Journey 10. The theme of Journey Travel = Culture Change ours ideas of culture Religion Rules Know new people Live with other people Improve your sense of indipendence Personality Lifestyle History Literature KnowledgesDifferent school or work Change the stereotyps