Jack Kerouac

Bob Dylan’s Lyricism: A Countercultural Perspective Abstract: Bob Dylan, a songwriter, poet and a 2017 Nobel laureate in literature is often portrayed as the guiding spirit of the sixties counterculture. Dylan’s politically committed songs in the 1960’s articulated a vision of society that was radically different from the existing political realities. The paper highlights the cultural resonance of Dylan’s radical lyricism amidst the countercultural era. It depicts the close affiliations that…

might not have been the greatest. In his early life, he got marked by his mother’s psychological troubles and a series of nervous breakdowns. Later in 1943, while studying in Columbia University, he met and befriends with William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. He’s known as the greatest writer of the beat generation. In that time many writers will use drugs as a tool to give them creativity; Ginsberg used this same tool. And then after he got rested because he stolen some goods from other college…

Fight Club is a perfect novel for the times. Many American men, including myself, have found that they are frustrated with modern day society’s views are how we should behave. Chuck took this issue head on, creating a character who was well behaved on the surface, but haunted by something dark deep down inside of him. This in turn made him want to fight, or “destroy something beautiful” not for any particular reason, but to just feel the pain from it or to feel anything at all. Justin Garrison…

While some might consider the 1950s to represent an era of consensus, when people choose to conform rather than rock the boat, this characterization in not one-hundred percent true. In fact, there was several different groups within the United States that desired and attempted to sink the boat. For instance, an up and rising rock ‘n’ roll musician, Elvis Presley, was becoming a sensational phenomenon for the teenage listeners but was met with anger from the older generations who believed his…

Race, class, and gender; these terms are used exhaustively in modern political discourse ad nauseum. Scholars and pundits across the political spectrum debate and ponder as to how they intersect and affect each other, oftentimes coming to wildly diverse conclusions. The bulk of these conclusions are certainly contentious as many are laced with dogmatic political rhetoric, so only those who are in search of confirmation of their viewpoints tend to listen. Each of these terms are invariably…

America was once described as baseball and apple pie. The Cold War forced Americans to choose the status quo of traditional American life or to face a new modernized age. The United States being a superpower in the Cold War locked horns with the very powerful Soviet Union over which form of economic and political system was best. The struggle for power in both countries was fought with espionage, nuclear deterrent, propaganda and a space race. The Cold War had formed a new frontier of changes,…

My journey with literacy has been a part of my life and began before I even entered school. During my early days you would say I was a “repeater”. I repeated things that I would hear from my parents and people that were around me all the time. Some of them were good to say and some not so good to say. My parents always sat down and read to me. While growing up as well my parents worked a lot so my grandparents basically raised me by watching me in the morning and taking me to two by two,…

Buddhism is an ancient discipline, but it still managements to intersect with modern religion at a lot of junctions. In the 20th and 21st centuries, especially, the teachings of the Buddha have become more prevalent, not only in Buddhist circles, but also in non-Buddhist treatment of certain events, philosophies and concepts. The products of these intersections of modern writing and Buddhism demonstrate a strong leaning towards secularism, and neo-spirituality – both of which are essentially the…

Ginsberg: For the Better "HOWL" is one of the greatest poems ever written. Orchestrated by Allen Ginsberg, "HOWL" reflects the mastermind that Ginsberg was. His innovative style of writing has passed the test of time and is well known among the scholarly crowd of American society today. One quality that Ginsberg possessed was that he challenged society in every possible way. He raised questions on institutions not previously scrutinized during his time such as the education, government, law…

the "bridge" between the Beat Generation and the hippie culture, and that Gary Snyder brought in a more "sophisticated" element to the counterculture connection. Smith mentioned the Beats connection, but arguably did not give enough credit to Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsberg. or even Neal Cassady for influencing Kesey, Wright, and thus the counterculture. However, Smith argued, much of the counterculture interest was superficial, simply cultural appropriation. Smith included Peter Coyote's…