4. 1 On the Road under culture of Beat Generation
Created in 1951, On the Road is typed by Jack Kerouac just in three weeks. It has borne an aesthetic grudge for a long time because it reveals much more of the back corner of the conventional creations than its adversaries. However, it is also glorified as the Bible of Beat Generation which presents the dark age of a developed society. It embodies nearly each corner of culture of Beat Generation. From desire for natural life to enthusiasm in jazz and pop music, from true apperception of life to self-contradiction, all can be grasped from the excellent creation in literature.
4. 1. 1 Desire for natural life in On the Road
Earlier in 1950s when Beat Generation was born, is an age after wars, full of development. At that time, traffic in America was on the way to excellence and national standard of living raised so much in apparent. However, political-culture is very oppressive. In this society where movement of democratic rights prevailed, it seemed that terrible fume emitted from American life in this depressive society where people lived with danger. But living uninhibitedly, the Beats were disgusted with such atmosphere. They were indulged in alcohol, sexuality, jazz, roving, glorious belief and castigation of politics and society. Ostensibly, they were decadence and degenerate, but facts disprove it. The Beat Generation was not just eluded the reality. They desired enthusiasm for life and pursue the nature of the real life. Their interests were to adventure everywhere by traveling and experience all kinds of novelty. And in faith, their cynicism was prodigious at that moment. They actually criticized an organized system and such criticism was accepted by some Americans, which owns profound significance in real life, though it is meaningless that they gave no room to the youth for their growth in that society.
Men and women in On the Road are just a group of people as Beat Generation in reality. “They rush to the streets to explore something divertive, although later they find those monotonous. Then they run a risk again to exploit novelty.” Dean, the most important character in On the Road, is one of those “who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved” [8], which is not just derogatory words but must be the best to describe the Beats’ wild oats. He despises those who comply with convention: “Now you just dig them in front. They have worries, they’re counting the miles, they’re thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they’ll get there-and all the time they’ll get there anyway, you see.” [8] Sal and Dean, who are young and incarnate the new Generation’s view towards life, choose to peregrinate throughout America. They want to discover the essence of life on the road: “we were going to do everything we’d never done and had been too silly to do in the past.” [8]
4. 1. 2 True perceptions of society and life in On the Road
Most of the Beats’ travels are in the car on the road, and sometimes they live a so vagrant life that there is not even a coin by them, which maybe seems very terrible. But the true dreariness of them lies in their sober apprehension of existed system which is absolutely inhuman. No matter they are from Denver to San Francisco or from Chicagoan to Detroit or to New York, nearly every moment, they experience discrimination, unjustness and dishonesty and despise the true and hideous appearance under countless masks. Of course, such perception of society and life is clearly reflected in On the Road. In the novel, “Great beautiful clouds floated overhead, valley clouds that made you feel the vastness of old tumbledown holy America from mouth to mouth and tip to tip.” [8] And in their opinion, “Something, someone, some spirit was pursuing all of us across the desert of life and was bound to catch us before we reached heaven.” [8] Also, once Sal spends a whole night in a inferior cinema, he finds himself the garbage that has been swept in to a ash bin: “He would have had to roam the entire United States and look in every garbage pail from coast to coast before he found me embryonically convoluted among the rubbish of my life, his life, and the life of everybody concerned and not concerned.” [8] This confession makes one connect it to some other behaviors of theirs on the road. Once because of overtaking, policemen fine them without any explains of theirs. Sal damns the Bobbies that they invite them to thieve and rob as they have taken all the money away. And in another time when they drive in Washington, they see a sham battle for the second inauguration of the president Truman. The battle is bloody and all the soldiers are conceited. Dean mock and condemn them, saying what they are going to do and maybe Truman is sleeping somewhere in the city. Obviously, fantastic behavior of Beats’ is endowed with profound social causes. However, it is at key moments such as when they have to choose among lots of alternatives, when they are faced with deceit and even when they confront death that they perceive the truth of life. In the novel, it writes out their perception of life. “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” [8] “What’s your road, man-holy boy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road? It’s an anywhere road for anybody anyhow. Where body how?” [8]
转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net
共12页: 上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] 6 [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] 下一页
网摘收藏:
当前位置:
载入中...
-> 在百度中搜索：
-> 在Google中搜索：