week 3/ On the Road

There are two major points I would like to address in this blog; the first being Kerouac's writing style and the second being that of the content of the book itself.

Starting with Kerouac's writing style. It's unorthodox to say the least; he was shunned by the literary community as a whole and yet he still managed to sell millions of copies of "On the Road". The question I had was, why? His book is, on the surface, nothing special. It outlines life as Kerouac lived it, along with his friends and their chance encounters.

Perhaps it's the way he writes "On the Road"; in a straightforward and unassuming way. Kerouac writes in an almost stream-of-conscious manner, complete with run on sentences and bad grammar. Why then, did the people of not only that generation, but also of this one like the story so much. I believe that at the time this stream-of-conscious style of writing (a style that was so shunned by the scholastic and literary community that Kerouac and Ginsberg never received recognition from them) was what spoke to the general public. Kerouac uses everyday speech--even slang--to convey his story in one of the most compelling first person narratives that I have ever read.

Only a select few go to prestigious literary schools. The rest of the population were simply working class men and women who were just trying to get along in a post cold war life. This is something that Kerouac--and indeed the entire beat movement--reveled in. "On the Road" isn't simply a book about a guy who went traveling, it was about the life choices/styles of the up and coming generation. It was a guidebook on how to live your life, and still can be.

This major philosophy of really exploring and living ones life to the fullest is true for not only the post cold war era, but also this one, and all those to come in the future. There is so much potential in human beings and the only way to discover that potential, that talent, is to really explore oneself and those around you. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be alive? Does one need to follow the rules of society to the tee, or are there some expectations that we should throw off and recreate ourselves into the new generation and new social code of today?

Perhaps it's just my youth speaking, but I believe that you can only excel in life if you can trust yourself. Most of the general public don't know how to do that, and that's what gets us stuck into a pattern of followers. Yes, tradition is necessary and good; history MUST be acknowledged and studied, if only to be informed about what could happen in the future. BUT, I believe that tradition for traditions sake is repetitive and destructive. It creates an entire generation of people who are unable to think and live for themselves.

In "On the Road" Kerouac teaches us how to discover, or rediscover, oneself. He lives life to the fullest by breaking it down to the bare minimums and then really feeling those moments. It's in the moment of fear before an accomplishment that we learn the most about ourselves.