The Beat Generation was born in the 1940s in post-war America. The movement had gained maturity and had started to articulate its philosophy in the 1960s. The Beat Generation was termed by Kerouac in an interview with John Clellon Holmes in 1948 (Stephenson 2) and is supposed to have started to emerge during World War II. It was then adopted in John Clellon Holmes’ 1952 novel Go (Holmes). Jack Kerouac writes in his book The Origins of the Beat Generation, “It goes back to the inky ditties of old cartoons… to Count Dracula and his smile… To Clark Gable” (Kerouac 17). The generation and its literature were widely influenced by the socio-economic-political condition of the time. As Kerouac pointed out:
…this America was invested with wild selfbelieving individuality and this had begun to disappear around the end of World War II with so many guys dead… when suddenly it began to emerge again, the hipsters began to appear gliding around saying “Crazy, man.” (Kerouac, The Origin of the Beat Generation 18)
The beat generation, through its poetry, created a social statement against the increasingly stifling social ethos of the time. The poetry of the Beat Generation exuded of the ideal of the Beat Generation that was to “escape” in a “vision” (Wallace 3). This essay describes the beat generation and when and how they thrived, and their poetry.
Origin of the Beat Generation
The Beat Generation started from 1940s and the undisputed leader and chronicler of the movement was Jack Kerouac. By 1950s, the lyrical side of the movement gained full maturity with radical poets like Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac. the Beat culture was a movement that revolted against the stifling ethos of the then American society that led to the adoption of a lifestyle of alcoholism, drug addiction, mental problems, etc. Gregory Stephenson believes that the origin of the Beat Generation was “characterized by violence, desperation, confusion, and suffering” that is transgressed to a “beatific stage” that is marked by a “vision” and is communicated to the fellow human beings (Stephenson 3). The two distinct phases stated above molded the literary works created by the movement. In the first phase of desolation there was uncertainty and violence observed in the Beat group:
During this period David Kammerer was killed; Lucien Carr and Neal Cassady, and Gregory Corso were incarcerated; Carl Solomon and Allen Ginsberg were institutionalized; Bill Cannastra and Joan Burroughs were killed; William Burroughs was addicted to opiates and lived in exile; Michael McClure underwent his dark night of the soul; and Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jack Kerouac pursued their separate and solitary wanderings. (Stephenson 3)
However, it is in the second phase of the movement that the Beat Generation achieved a humanistic spirituality and mysticism in its ideals.
The Beat Generation was believed to have inherited the ideals in its first phase of desolation from the “Lost Generation” that emerged due to the participation in the World War I and through the catastrophes, the age had witnessed (Stephenson 4). The Beat Generation was created through the uncertainty, violence, and destruction of the World War II. This brought the generation to believe that there were culturally, morally crippled by the time, and therefore, revolted against all its behavior and mores. They outrightly rejected social, political, and religious ideals. This made the Beat Generation experiment with new set of believes thoughts, and ways of expression. One of the primary influences on the Beat Generation was the Lost Generation that showed similar rebellious anti-norm culture (Stephenson 5).
The Beat Generation was also influenced by the “phenomenon of hipsterism” (Stephenson 5). The hipsters evolved from the 1920s Harlem and jazz clubs. The hipsters were usually jazz artists and their fans, followers, and they were both blacks and whites (Stephenson 5). These people created a distinct style and fashion, language, appearance, and dress. According to Stephenson, hipsterism “represented an outlook, a code, a way of life that, in its attitudes towards sexuality and drugs, was in direct opposition to the predominant puritanical” (5). Though a class difference between the Lost Generation and the hipsters were evident as the former belonged to the middle and the upper class, the latter represented the lower, working-class Americans. From the bohemianism of the hipsters, the Beat Generation captured its unconventional ways and the “romantic egoism” (Stephenson 5).
The “transcendentalist,” such as Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, and the English romantic poets such as William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley also influenced the Beat Generation. They are also supposed to be the “archetypical descendents” of the Shem such as James Joyce. (Stephenson 7) therefore, the Beat Generation can be considered to be the amalgamation of the maverick mind and spirit of the time.
The Beat Poets
The Beat poets were affiliates or friends and gained fame in-between 1944 and 1961 (Reisman 1). The early Beat poets showed a sense of disillusionment in their pursuit to maintain their individuality against the overwhelming pressure to fit in. this was expressed through their open negation of the social, sexual, and literary norms of the time.
The poetry of the Beat generation exalted in a vision. Their affinity for death and desolation with life, and in the end, closeness to the spiritual mysticism is evident in beat poetry. The first part of the poem envisions a modern America that is full of nightmares that pushes “the best minds of my generation” to desperate and socially deviant acts and lifestyle (Ginsberg 9). The second part of the poem identifies materialism and mechanical capitalization as the reasons for such a state in the society. The beatific vision of the beat poetry is evident in the poem “Footnote to Howl,” from the book Howl and Other Poems (1956) by Allen Ginsberg. The first line of the poem repeatedly used the word “Holy!” fifteen times and especially was preceded by the names of Allen, Kerouac, Huncke, Burroughs, and Cassady (Ginsberg 27). The Footnote ends with a conciliation with the present and expansion of the vision that the Beats demonstrated. The nightmarish condition of the society is considered by Ginsberg as a part of the overall divine plan and therefore considered “holy” (Ginsberg 28).
Jack Kerouac’s best known poetical work is Mexico City Blues. This is a long epic poem that deals with Kerouac’s internal struggle as he moved away from Catholicism towards Buddhism. The poem has a rhythmic association to jazz music and relies more on sound and rhythm than the traditional form of literary interpretation:
And his expression on his face
Was as calm, beautiful, and profound
As the image of Buddha
Represented in the East, the lidded eyes,
The expression that says “All is Well”
– This is what Charley Parker
Said when he played, All is Well. (Kerouac, Mexico City Blues 52)
The beat poetry demonstrated the ideals that the Beat Generation upheld. There was a struggle in their poetry and negation of the prevalent norms. The poetry was infused with the spirituality and mysticism that the movement produced. Therefore, the beat poets demonstrated a radicalism along with mystical spirituality in their poetry.
Works Cited
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and other poems. San Frascisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1956.
Holmes, John Clellon. Go. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2002. Print.
Kerouac, Jack. “Mexico City Blues.” Waldman, Anne and Allen Ginsberg. The Beat Book: Writings from the Beat Generation. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, 1996. 51-53. Print.
Kerouac, Jack. “The Origin of the Beat Generation.” Waldman, Anne and Allen Ginsberg. The Beat Book: Writings from the Beat Generation. New York: Shambhala Publications, 1996. 17-18. Print.
Reisman, Rosemary M. Canfield. Critical Survey fo Poetry: Beat Poets. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2011. Print.
Stephenson, Gregory. The Daybreak Boys: Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation. Illinois: SIU Press, 1990. Print.
Wallace, Mike. “Mike Wallace Asks jack Kerouac: What is the Beat Generation?” Hayes, Kevin J. Conversations with Jack Kerouac. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1958. 3-36. Print.