Kerouac's On The Road and the American Quest

Critic: Scott C. Holstad
Source: Occasional Papers on Language, Literature and Linguistics
Criticism about: On the Road

Jack Kerouac's On The Road is the most uniquely American novel of its time. While it has never fared well with academics, On The Road has come to symbolize for many an entire generation of disaffected young Americans. One can focus on numerous issues when addressing the novel, but the two primary reasons which make the book uniquely American are its frantic Romantic search for the great American hero (and ecstasy in
general), and Kerouac's "Spontaneous Prose" method of writing.

On The Road is an autobiographical first-person book written in 1951 and based on Kerouac's experiences of the late 1940's. At the time, America was undergoing drastic changes and the sense of sterility brought on by a mechanized Cold War era society resulted in a feeling of existential dislocation for many. Numerous Americans began to experience a sense of purposelessness and the air was rife with disillusionment.

Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’: A Re-Evaluation

Critic: Carole Gottlieb Vopat
Source: The Midwest Quarterly, Vol. XIV, No. 4, Summer, 1973, pp. 385-407. Reproduced by permission
Criticism about: Jack Kerouac

Nothing has been published about Jack Kerouac for seven years. Most of what has been written is either hostile or condescending or both. While it may perhaps be true, as Melvin W. Askew suggests that to speak of Jack Kerouac in the same breath with Melville, Twain, and Hawthorne is “to leave a smirch on the configuration of the classic American literature,” Kerouac has, as they have, provided an enduring portrait of the national psyche; like Fitzgerald, he has defined American and delineated American life for his generation. Certainly, Kerouac is not a great writer, but he is a good writer, and has more depth and control than his critics allow. On the Road is more than a “crazy wild frantic” embrace of beat life; implicit in Kerouac’s portrayal of the beat generation is his criticism of it, a criticism that anticipates the charges of his most hostile critics. For example, Norman Podhoretz’ assertion that “the Beat Generation’s worship of primitivism and spontaneity…arises from a pathetic poverty of feeling,” parallels Kerouac’s own insights in On the Road.