The Beat Generation

The Beat Generation

                        The   Beat Generation  








The Twentieth Century has witnessed several moments which have helped to shape the face of American culture.   Each movement has in some way altered the way we, as Americans, think and act.   One of the most influential literary movements of this century has been that of the Beat movement.   The Beats were initially a small group of individuals situated in New York.   The Beat writers were a small group of friends at first, and a movement later. The Beat Generation in literature consisted   of a relatively small number of writers, of which Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs are the best known today.   All three met in the surroundings of Columbia University in New York City in the mid 1940’s, and they   remained close friends.   They encouraged each other’s individualistic writing efforts before publishers began to take their work seriously in the late 1950’s.   Their purpose was to provoke, to challenge, to question the changes caused by the new technologies , to help Americans to remember that this too was once a place where men could dream of a better future.  
The Beats were dissatisfied with America’s blandness.   McDonalds and bigger department store chains had Americans eating, dressing and furnishing their homes the same way.   The emerging television set within homes had Americans informed and entertained from one single media point.   So bland…blah!   They felt a lack of purpose in life both socially and culturally, they needed a way out.   They found their purpose through literature, social contacts, and freedom.   The Beats had a real appreciation for their freedom and fought to expand it.  
They liked the ability to pick up and go On the Road,   which is the title of Jack Kerouac’s book describing   his adventures hitchhiking across country.   The Beats would define themselves   "as poets in a land of philistines, men seeking spiritual destinies rather than material ones"   They set...