Shared more. Cited more. Safe forever.
    • advanced search
    • submit works
    • about
    • help
    • contact us
    • login
    View Item 
    •   MOspace Home
    • University of Missouri-Kansas City
    • Honors Program (UMKC)
    • Lucerna: Honors Undergraduate Journal (UMKC)
    • Lucerna, vol. 9 (2014)
    • View Item
    •   MOspace Home
    • University of Missouri-Kansas City
    • Honors Program (UMKC)
    • Lucerna: Honors Undergraduate Journal (UMKC)
    • Lucerna, vol. 9 (2014)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    advanced searchsubmit worksabouthelpcontact us

    Browse

    All of MOspaceCommunities & CollectionsDate IssuedAuthor/ContributorTitleIdentifierThesis DepartmentThesis AdvisorThesis SemesterThis CollectionDate IssuedAuthor/ContributorTitleIdentifierThesis DepartmentThesis AdvisorThesis Semester

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular AuthorsStatistics by Referrer

    Beat to Death: the Beat Generation's Impact on Neal Cassady

    Ingram, Sydney A.
    View/Open
    [PDF] IngramBeaToDea.pdf (108.8Kb)
    Date
    2014
    Format
    Article
    Metadata
    [+] Show full item record
    Abstract
    The Beat Generation is one of the most influential movements in American literature. The lives of these writers are just as fascinating as their stories and poetry. The most important members and contributors were writer Jack Kerouac, poet Allen Ginsberg, and their best friend, lover, and muse Neal Cassady. These three men, as well as others along the way, would redefine the roles of men in a post-World War II America as well as create a new image for the country. Arguably, it was Cassady who was the catalyst for this movement, but he hardly wrote a word. He came to New York from Denver, where his past was fabricated and unbelievable, to have Kerouac teach him how to write. Cassady, the conman, wanted to learn from Kerouac and then from Ginsberg. He was immortalized in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road as Dean Moriarty, the rebel from Denver, who always chose adventure over responsibility. Allen Ginsberg wrote him as a “secret hero” in his most famous poem “Howl” (Ginsberg 136). Both Kerouac and Ginsberg idolized Cassady but for different reasons. Cassady himself is an enigma, his entire life story a fabrication. He grew up on the streets of Denver, stealing cars and hustling. He was also an altar boy and a father of three, and even tried his hand at writing with his unfinished autobiography The First Third. With the help of Kerouac, he managed to make his life into what would later be the embodiment of the Beat Generation. Kerouac made him seem far more adventurous than Cassady perhaps really wanted to be. Ginsberg, on the other hand, drew upon Cassady’s sex life in his poetry, focusing on Cassady as a sex symbol. Both interpretations took a heavy toll on Cassady as he attempted to keep up with the demands of those who had read On the Road and “Howl.” For the rest of his life he would try to uphold the standards imposed on him by his friends and the youth of generations to come. The impact of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Cassady can be seen in every aspect of the writers’ lives. The standards they set for Cassady became the standards they themselves had to live up to and die by.
    URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/10355/48082
    Part of
    Lucerna;vol. 9
    Collections
    • Lucerna, vol. 9 (2014)

    If you encounter harmful or offensive content or language on this site please email us at harmfulcontent@umkc.edu. To learn more read our Harmful Content in Library and Archives Collections Policy.

    Send Feedback
    hosted by University of Missouri Library Systems
     

     


    If you encounter harmful or offensive content or language on this site please email us at harmfulcontent@umkc.edu. To learn more read our Harmful Content in Library and Archives Collections Policy.

    Send Feedback
    hosted by University of Missouri Library Systems