Analysis Of Jack Kerouac On The Beat Generation

Jack Kerouac is considered as one of the main authors of the Beat Generation. When I was reading Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road I became more interested in how the author was influenced during his infancy and after adulthood. Why did Kerouac decide to choose this kind of lifestyle? Why did he decide to put his thoughts or experiences on a paper or on a scroll, in this case? The historical and cultural background is an inevitable element of a character development. In case of Jack Kerouac, the death of his brother, the unstable family background, and the unique friendship with Neal Cassady largely influenced his life, his thoughts and finally, his style of writing.

The biography

First of all, Kerouac was born in 1922, in Lowell, Massachusetts,

“The emotional difficulties Jack experienced in adulthood seem to have stemmed in part from the trauma of Gerard” (Amburn). But he experienced another trauma throughout his life: “Years later, research into the lives of children of alcoholic parents revealed that such children hate themselves, their parents, and life in general. As Kerouac grew up, he came to blame himself for his parents’ drinking, his mother’s unhappiness, his father’s joblessness, and even his brother’s death” (Amburn) Kerouac’s life was determined by his family’s disappointments but the psychedelic drugs and the young blondes compensated him. He went ‘on the road’ further, traveled to Mexico and New York. If he had a desire for security, he returned home to his mother’s shelter. In fact, his only one mainstay, the supporter became his mother, Gabrielle who influenced his whole life: “…he was very messed up about women because of his overly intense relationship with his mother. And in a way, I think, flitting from women to women was his way of staying faithful to his mother – no one was ever going to supplant her as the fixed figure in his life” (Johnson no pag.). Gabrielle always protected his little boy, urged him to