On the occasion of the International Youth Day, we invite you to discover major works of the XXth Century related to these themes. Today, we will discuss about On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
We are in 1947’s summer in New York. The young Jack Kerouac (Sal Paradise in the first version of the novel) is bored. On a whim, he decides to leave for San Francisco accompanied by his best friend at the time, the intrepid Neal Cassidy (Dean Moriarty). Thus begins the story of a long wandering without end and without real goal which takes place in post-war America, America still schooled by puritanism.
What is this novel really about? Not much, actually. The narrator is at first a student on vacation. He becomes vaguely vagabond. He finances his travels by becoming a farmer, falls in love with a young local flower. When he arrives in San Francisco, he leaves almost immediately, wanting to reach another destination, almost chosen at random. He wanders through the dark streets of San Francisco in search of the dysfunctional family made up of surprise meetings and friends of friends. His relatives are Allen Ginsberg (Carlo Marx) or William S. Burroughs (Old Bull Lee).
His travels are punctuated by the excesses that are those of youth: alcohol a lot, women and sometimes men, traditional drugs that become popular. The most masterful charge remains this vagabond lifestyle. They live in their vans, live according to local solidarity and sometimes live from a little work. There is no real beginning or end to the journey: the arrival at a destination is the reason for a new departure towards another unknown destination. The return trips will take them from New York to San Francisco, from America to Mexico. Gradually, the trip becomes its own end.
The group of artists formed around these figures will give its name to an artistic movement precursor of the hippie movement, the Beat Generation. Twenty years before the Summer of Love, they advocated a return to nature, a flight against productivism and the search for transcendence in extra-corporeal experiences, whether chemical, spiritual or sexual.
Jack Kerouac wrote his manuscript in three weeks, on a roll called "the scroll" - a continuous roll of 120 feet of tracing paper that he cut and taped together. Through this endless novel, he tells the story of the accomplishment of this candid young student who initially leaves without knowing much about the reason or purpose of his journey. He is bored. Three years later when the novel ends, he has become a solid adventurer haunted by the ghosts of those crazy years.
The journey describes in hollow the evolution towards adulthood. This adolescence will be tortuous, rich in twists and adventures. In a way, Jack Kerouac is the teenager that everyone dreamed of being. Goodbye boring summer jobs and hello to real life.
Not being Jack Kerouac himself, what does the story of his vacation have to offer us? The author tells the drama of youth: not knowing what tomorrow will bring, where it will all lead me, am I even talented enough to succeed? Retirement is that terrible age of balance. The age when the essential is now behind us. The age when we can say without too much mistake what we did well, what we failed at and what we regret.
On the contrary, youth is that Golden Age, the one where everything is possible. The age where you can start again and again until you find and succeed. The age of the first and most beautiful and strong emotions. If travel forms youth, literature is once again a beautiful invitation to travel.
We are in 1947’s summer in New York. The young Jack Kerouac (Sal Paradise in the first version of the novel) is bored. On a whim, he decides to leave for San Francisco accompanied by his best friend at the time, the intrepid Neal Cassidy (Dean Moriarty). Thus begins the story of a long wandering without end and without real goal which takes place in post-war America, America still schooled by puritanism.
What is this novel really about? Not much, actually. The narrator is at first a student on vacation. He becomes vaguely vagabond. He finances his travels by becoming a farmer, falls in love with a young local flower. When he arrives in San Francisco, he leaves almost immediately, wanting to reach another destination, almost chosen at random. He wanders through the dark streets of San Francisco in search of the dysfunctional family made up of surprise meetings and friends of friends. His relatives are Allen Ginsberg (Carlo Marx) or William S. Burroughs (Old Bull Lee).
His travels are punctuated by the excesses that are those of youth: alcohol a lot, women and sometimes men, traditional drugs that become popular. The most masterful charge remains this vagabond lifestyle. They live in their vans, live according to local solidarity and sometimes live from a little work. There is no real beginning or end to the journey: the arrival at a destination is the reason for a new departure towards another unknown destination. The return trips will take them from New York to San Francisco, from America to Mexico. Gradually, the trip becomes its own end.
The group of artists formed around these figures will give its name to an artistic movement precursor of the hippie movement, the Beat Generation. Twenty years before the Summer of Love, they advocated a return to nature, a flight against productivism and the search for transcendence in extra-corporeal experiences, whether chemical, spiritual or sexual.
Jack Kerouac wrote his manuscript in three weeks, on a roll called "the scroll" - a continuous roll of 120 feet of tracing paper that he cut and taped together. Through this endless novel, he tells the story of the accomplishment of this candid young student who initially leaves without knowing much about the reason or purpose of his journey. He is bored. Three years later when the novel ends, he has become a solid adventurer haunted by the ghosts of those crazy years.
The journey describes in hollow the evolution towards adulthood. This adolescence will be tortuous, rich in twists and adventures. In a way, Jack Kerouac is the teenager that everyone dreamed of being. Goodbye boring summer jobs and hello to real life.
Not being Jack Kerouac himself, what does the story of his vacation have to offer us? The author tells the drama of youth: not knowing what tomorrow will bring, where it will all lead me, am I even talented enough to succeed? Retirement is that terrible age of balance. The age when the essential is now behind us. The age when we can say without too much mistake what we did well, what we failed at and what we regret.
On the contrary, youth is that Golden Age, the one where everything is possible. The age where you can start again and again until you find and succeed. The age of the first and most beautiful and strong emotions. If travel forms youth, literature is once again a beautiful invitation to travel.
MAXIME DUMAX-VORZET
Maxime is a french volunteer involved in Youth Day's Campaign
