"The Beats Generation
Near the end of the Second World War, a �movement� was formed by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs as well as a group of other writers and artists. This movement found its voice during the fifties and became especially influential during the sixties. Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs formed a �New Vision� of culture on broader consciousness, unconventional morals, and uncensored self-expression. The core group became the catalyst for a new generation who late became known as the �Beats.�
The original meaning for �beat� meant nothing more than �bad� or �ruined.� The word is usually used in this way. When a person is tired, they may say, �I�m beat.� People can be beaten-up, or ...
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that the word meant �exhausted, at the bottom the world, looking up or out, sleepless, wide-eyes, perceptive, rejected b society, on your own, streetwise.�
Kerouac was completely captivated by the mood and tone of the word �beat.� He insisted that the word possessed a deeper quality and meant something spiritual and mysterious. That kind of beatness is what Kerouac was describing in himself and his friends. They were bright young Americans that couldn�t fit into society as clean-cut soldiers or self-satisfied young businessmen. They were �beat� because they didn�t have and didn�t believe in straight jobs. They had to struggle to survive, selling drugs for money to buy food and pay the rent for their dirty apartment. They were �beat� because they hitchhiked across the continent because they couldn�t stay in the same place without becoming restless and bored.
But the word has a second meaning. �Beat� meant �beatific� or sacred and holy. Beatific was the idea stemming from the ...
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to analyze the rather aimless direction taken by so many young men and women after the war, Holmes urged Jack to characterize the new attitude by trying to define it in a few phrases. Kerouac replied, �It�s a kind of beatness. . .and a weariness with all the forms all the conventions of the world. . So I guess you might say we�re a beat generation.�
The remark was hardly intended to be the definitive statement it wound up being. Yet like so many other of Kerouac�s remarks, it was implanted in a deep-rooted philosophy. Inherent in his observation was an idea that symbolized the energy behind the lives and literature of Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kerouac, Holmes, as well as many others.
The ...
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""The Beats Generation." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 24 Feb. 2007. Web. 28 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Beats-Generation/60822>
""The Beats Generation." Essayworld.com. February 24, 2007. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Beats-Generation/60822.
""The Beats Generation." Essayworld.com. February 24, 2007. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Beats-Generation/60822.
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