American Literature / Unit 16 AML 1532 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Jack Kerouac and *On the Road*
Captions available
The idea
Kerouac was the son of an impoverished French-Canadian family who met the Beat underground at Columbia University. His best-known novel, of nineteen fifty-seven, describes beatniks wandering through America after an idealistic dream of communal life and beauty. The Dharma Bums followed in nineteen fifty-eight.
In practice
Wandering America after a communal dream.
Where people slip
The style is loosely autobiographical.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
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