Dec 27, 2009

On the Road | Topics for Further Study

Kerouac sought to write as some of the great jazz musicians played. Listen to some of the great jazz musicians, such as Charlie Parker or Miles Davis. What, if anything, does this music share with On the Road? Was Kerouac successful in emulating his musical heroes?

Research other American literary movements, such as the Transcendentalists of the mid-nineteenth century and the Lost Generation of the 1920s, and write an essay comparing them to the Beat Generation.

Discuss the female characters in On the Road. Several critics have complained that Kerouac's work...