The Beats: A Literary Analysis

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“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night.”(Ginsberg, Allen: Howl). ‘Beats’ are characterized as individuals who desire to instigate change and deeply believe in their convictions. After World War 2 ideas of nationalism and the fabrication of the American dream was produced to be marked to the masses, which encroached upon as well as went against the Beats concept of freedom, lifestyle and manner of existence within society. The Beats did not want to break the system, within which society existed upon, …show more content…
Beat artists highly valued the genuine experiences of life and being truly authentic. Not many individuals could do this since it required allot of self-contemplation and confronting the underbelly of the subconscious as well as society. To genuinely write about an experience one has to live though it and identify with it. The best Beat writers empathising with and understand their subject matter and never shy away from the beaten down and unsavory aspects of …show more content…
Beats see and feel things differently than the general populous, mainly craving to fulfil the unsatisfied desire to articulate something within oneself. Jack Kerouac’s narrative of On the Road is akin to a spiritual journey, or a process of self-discovery, in relation to the world. The characters of Sal Paradise based on himself and Dean Moriarty based on Neal Cassady form character personas around both of them in relation to the Beat aesthetic. The character of Dean Moriarty, in particular, invokes the image of the Beat lifestyle as a rebellion against popular culture and encompassed a carefree attitude and charisma that Kerouac admired as well as desired. When juxtaposed with Cassady, Kerouac appears more reserved and after he gained popularity as a Beat writer he withdrew more from

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