Essay On The Beat Generation
analytical Essay
1943 words
Racist Depictions of Latinos/as in Beat Generation Literature
Studies regarding the Beat Generation have pulsated over the years since the movement itself was at its peak, but what has endured throughout the fifty years since their emergence is Beat literature’s popularity with the general public. To further add to the Beat’s influence, their literature has also had a tremendous impact on the American literary canon. During the past two decades, primary source materials of the Beat movement continue to be published. Major film adaptations are also being produced from some of their most influential works and their personal lives. The Beat Generation’s literature has been looked at through many different perspectives ranging from anthropological to sociological. Some have analyzed that the Beat’s—particularly Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs—were racist in their depictions of African Americans, but little research has been done regarding their depictions towards Latinos/as. The review of literature has shown that few to none have looked at the Beat’s racism toward Latinos/as and their culture despite the fact that they spent a significant amount of time in Mexico.
Who was the Beat Generation?
The Beat Generation was a subculture that arose from the post World War II Bohemian culture in the United States. Bohemians can be defined as persons, artists, who live an unconventional life, usually amongst others also practicing this lifestyle. Bohemianism, as such, has always had a strong affiliation with the development of avant-garde as movements within art; significantly, Bohemia has been called the “underworld of art.” The Bohemian culture itself “is characterized by an active, though perhaps, irregular communalism and group dyn...
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...hemselves from the mainstream American society, they weren’t so far from the period regarding their racist views. The time period that the Beats were most active was around the 1950s, and racism was still a norm during that time. So, although for many, the Beat Generation of writers—with their public refusal of social and cultural norms and their way of life governed by the pursuit of pleasure, belief, and truth—are celebrated for their literature, I would like to revisit their work. There has been little to no analyses regarding the Beat Generation’s depictions of Latinos/as, despite the fact that this minority group is depicted in multiple works by the Beats. I plan to see whether Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs’ social mores regarding racism reflect in their work by comparing their personal letters, journals, and essays to their published novels and poetry.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the beat generation's literature has had a tremendous impact on the american literary canon.
- Analyzes how the beat generation broke the boundaries of american censorship and opened the doors to all art forms.
- Analyzes how the beat generation sought literary achievement, but contemporary fashion, entertainment, and opinion columnists granted them more notice than did literary critics.
- Analyzes how kerouac's on the road portrays sal as an italian american who wants to relate to minority cultures.
- Proposes that although the beat generation wanted to separate themselves from mainstream american society, they weren't so far from the period regarding their racist views.
- Explains that the beat generation arose from the post-world war ii bohemian culture in the united states.
- Analyzes how the beat generation's appropriation of african american culture is similar to that of the nineteenth-century romantic racialists.
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In this essay, the author
- Explains that the beat generation was a bohemian hipster like movement that embraced creativity untouched by culture. jack kerouac's writing was deliberate and spontaneous.
- Analyzes how jack kerouac was inspired to write spontaneously in mexico because of tristessa's junk addiction and how she embraces death even though her life is miserable.
- Analyzes how jack kerouac's novella, tristessa, is based on drug abuse. he believes in equality and respect of all humans and creatures.
- Analyzes how jack kerouac is inspired to write spontaneous prose while on an adventure in mexico with tristessa and her drug addiction.
- Analyzes how jack kerouac's metaphor about tristessa’s dove eyes is a reminder to americans to stop worrying about the pursuit of happiness.
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- Analyzes how hunter s. thompson's semi-autobiographical novel fear and loathing in las vegas is a scathing attack on the myopic hippie dream and the futility of the 1960s.
- Explains that the trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. they had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid,.
- Analyzes how the characters' appetite for self-destruction is evident from the very first paragraph of fear and loathing in las vegas.
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In this essay, the author
- Explains that america was built on rebellion. the beat generation took americans in the 20th century, into a new way of life.
- Explains that jack kerouac, a writer who was fascinated with jazz, drugs and philosophy embodied this counter culture lifestyle, even taking on the title, "king of the beats."
- Explains that the beats were not rebelling against their fathers or their grandfathers but instead, their own generation. kerouac and many of his peers attended ivy league schools such as columbia.
- Explains that kerouac's writing style of spontaneous pros was inspired by jazz music in the 1940s. it broke literary structure and coincided with the energy of the new age topics.
- Analyzes how kerouac's "action writing" can be seen as being in an essentially oral tradition, spontaneous yet self-effacing, written down yet meant to be read allowed in a flurry.
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- Cites petix, esther, and boytinck, paul, in critical essays on anthony burgess.
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1057 wordsRead More - Tytell, John. Naked Angels: the Lives and Literature of the Beat Generation. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
In this essay, the author
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- Analyzes how kerouac throws in phrase after phrase, completely describing the mental state of sal using symbolic images without directly stating anything.
- Argues that sal's loss and change of identity stems directly from kerouac’s natural tendency to switch personalities. his childhood molded him into a schizophrenic.
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