Comparing On The Road And Ginsberg's

Beatniks were growing in numbers from the 1950s to the 1960s. Beat is a term that we will be analyzing in the forms of Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road and Ginsberg’s HOWL. We see the word in use literally and figuratively as a verb or in this case, internal conflict from the main and static characters in each novel. Often we will examine instances in each piece that do not have the word beat, but is defined by other words such as mad or generation. This is because the word ‘beat’ during the Beat Generation was not a word of single meaning, but rather individualistic meaning for cultural struggle in the 1960s of America. HOWL is a contrast in its literary form from On the Road primarily by its syntax and poetic structure whereas On the Road
20)” This is the only time the word beat is written in Howl and other poems, however repetitive words are an indicator of emphasis of each story. “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness…” is followed by seven breaks of ‘who’ signifying the protagonists of this poem: the best minds of his own generation, fellow Beatniks. To define Beat means to define the generation, the people. Ginsberg does this for us through figurative language after each portion of ‘who.’ “…who were expelled from the academies for crazy and publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull…who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol, and cock and endless balls…” The Beat Generation here is defined as men hungry for their writing to be heard, who indulge in drugs constantly to the point of where they dream and drugs are with them as well. With alcohol and other men, their enjoyments are black and white. They can speak their hearts desires with those who share in common the burden of being a Beat, “…who
The Beats as the American culture at midcentury represented an evolution of freedom that can be seen clearly from the publishing and dispute of HOWL. American culture at midcentury is similar to the Beat Generation because both sides have obedient individuals or groups that are not only strongly opinionated but are dedicated to each culture. The differences are that women do not play an equal part in the Beat Generation that is reflected from these two works. On the Road heavily displays the role as a woman as one who bears children, satisfies sexual hunger and are there to support men. They are not spoken of as people who can express themselves through literary means or conduct in a dominant manner with the same sex. Ginsberg speaks of men highly in regard to all that they can do while Kerouac more simply gives the reader examples of a relationship with women. For Sal and Dean in Kerouac’s novel, women are represented as a cause that holds them back from pursuing their hope for freedom. At the end of every journey, the women help and take care of the men but are constantly abandoned. Dean is even married three times and every time he has left not only the women but the children as well. It is not until later into the novel that the women get to speak their mind and tell the two how irresponsible they