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Examining Jack Kerouac's Role In The Beat Generation: Exploring Place In On The Road And The Dharma Bums, Kimberly Ann Tucker
Examining Jack Kerouac's Role In The Beat Generation: Exploring Place In On The Road And The Dharma Bums, Kimberly Ann Tucker
Master's Theses
This examination of two of Jack Kerouac’s roman-á-clefs, On the Road (1957) and The Dharma Bums (1958), illuminates characteristics of Kerouac’s personality and writing that are often ignored by current criticism. I will attempt to enhance current Kerouac scholarship by further analyzing the physical and spiritual journeys that Kerouac’s personas experience in these novels, contrasting Kerouac’s personas’ development with that of his Beat Generation companions. Despite his admiration for Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady) and Japhy Ryder (Gary Snyder), Kerouac does not present these individuals as American heroes. Indeed, Kerouac’s cynical narration suggests that these Beat characters cannot offer him the …