Jack Kerouac: a literary icon
(Mégane + Daph + Xavier) In this blog, we are going to take you down a road about jazz, traveling, poetry and drug use, through analysis and presentation of the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Let's start by diving into the life of the author and what brought him to write this masterpiece that was a staple for postwar generations like the Beat Movement.
Childhood and Family (Xavier)
Jack Kerouac was born on March 12th, 1922, in a catholic family. That day, a future star came to the world in Lowell, Massachusetts. His parents, Léo-Aclide Kéroack and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, were originally from the maple tree country, more precisely Quebec. Indeed, the native tongue of the artist is French. Jack had an older sister named Caroline and an older brother named Girard. Little Girard terribly died at nine years old of rheumatic fever. The whole family took it very hard; they were reduced to tears... After the tragedy, Jack’s father, Léo-Aclide, completely lost faith. He fell into the endless loop of alcoholism, smoking, and gambling. Young Jack started writing to escape the heavy familial atmosphere. He wrote his first novel entitled Mike Explores the Merrimack at eleven years old. Moreover, the child was extremely talented in all kinds of sports. Also, during his adolescence, the family was constantly moving to a new roof. This series of changes surely contributed to forging the independent and itinerant personality of the acclaimed artist.
Young Adult Life (Xavier)
Jack Kerouac was boundlessly talented at football. This enabled him to obtain a scholarship to the prestigious Columbia University in 1939. Unfortunately, the athlete got a tibia fracture during a match. Indeed, this terribly ended his football season. During the forced break in the big apple, Jack dipped into the world of drugs and prostitution. He also discovered jazz. During World War II, the man entered the U.S Navy. Back in New York after working in the Navy, the bohemian became friends with a group of young writers such as Allen Ginsberg. This group of writers is associated with the Beat Movement (see video) in which Jack was closely involved. Around 1947, Kerouac met Neal Cassady. The two vagabonds began to travel around the United States by automobile. Those adventures of road trips with Cassady are a major source of inspiration for his masterpiece On the Road.
Death (Xavier)
The Beat Movement
For more information on the movement:
A novelist's pathway (Daphnée)
As you've read, Jack Kerouac was a really special human who had a journey like no other. It is like Kerouac’s career was predestined. He was always into the arts. At a very young age, he was already a part of the cultural and literary industries. He was even part of a chronicle, which led him to spend a lot of time at the local theatre, assisting to a few presentations. He also spent countless hours at the printing house learning all about taping machines, which helped him later on in his career to have a very fast writing pace. When he was just eleven years old, he wrote his first short novel. At this age, he was having anxiety and it was stronger during the night. It seems like writing felt very therapeutic for him during those episodes. He later started creating humoristic comics. While he was still a young teenage boy, his sister left the house, leaving a very lonely and introverted Jack for who writing was an escape. It is at around 14 years old, that Kerouac started picturing himself has an author. Years later, he served in the US Navy for a few years before coming back to New York to start writing again. During this time, he met Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Neal Cassady. He then left for a road trip. While on the road, Kirouac carried a notebook in which he wrote about life on the road and precious memories. Those notes then turned into the beautiful piece of art that is On the road. This novel became his most famous work.
Artistic influence (Mégane)
What a man Jack Kerouac is. Full of quirks and particularities, his personality remains vivid and colorful in everyone’s mind. His writing style is quite peculiar, fluid like one's breath, it resembles a stream of thoughts as Kerouac's prose was very spontaneous and connected to his emotions, even if people close to the artist say he was a perfectionist craftsman. That philosophy in his writing came both from Jazz (especially the Bebop genre) and Buddhist influences. He’s inspired many other well-known artists, including The Doors. Ray Manzarek, their keyboardist, even wrote in his book "I suppose if Jack Kerouac had never written On the Road, The Doors would never have existed. » Some even say that Jim Morisson (The Doors) has built his persona a lot based on Dean Moriarty. But that group isn't the only one acclaiming Jack Kerouac, other artists also have mentioned his influence on their work including Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Obviously, Jack Kerouac didn't only have an impact on precise people, but rather on a whole generation as well! Much to his regret, he disliked labels, he's often considered as the father of the Beat Movement (see above for a descriptive video). Therefore, it’s easy to affirm that Kerouac played an important role in the artistic development of his time and even our time.
Writing On the Road (Mégane)
Jack Kerouac's free spirit, fundamental artistry and fast-paced soul can be observed in every part of his life, including the way he wrote On the Road. He who didn't learn English until he was six years old, finished his life not even being able to properly speak French, his mother tongue as previously mentioned. Clearly, it's something the artist regretted, it was a part of his heritage after all, because he allegedly started writing On the Road in French and then switched to English. Another interesting fact is that the draft version of the book was written on a 120 feet long roll of paper. Kerouac supposedly could type up to 100 words per minute on his typewriter and using a scroll allowed him to keep his pace and flow without having to switch sheets. An important precision is that even with his fast writing, he didn't actually write On the Road in three weeks as it's sometimes misunderstood: it's a possibility that he typed it in three weeks, but the book did go under many rounds of editing and submissions before finally being ready to be published. One of the possible changes made throughout the development of On the Road is the ending. The original one will surely be never known; at the end of the manuscript, it is simply written "Ate by Patchkee, a dog" Clearly, Jack Kerouac is a human being, even he had a few bumps along the road.
The original On the Road scroll
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