Connections between the Novel “On the Road” & the Movie “Midnight Cowboy”

Thesis Statement

The basic theme behind the novel “On the Road” and the movie “Midnight Cowboy” is about the context of beat generation. The Beat Generation was one of the largest cultural movements of the twentieth century.

Introduction

What started off as a literary phenomenon soon progressed to a life-changing attitude for thousands of people around the world. It embraced originality and individuality in the way people thought and acted. The novel On The Road by Jack Kerouac is a clear example of the way literature was written in this time period. The Beat Generation threw out the old rules of literature, which included music, sex, and religion.

On The Road, the most famous of Jack Kerouac's works, is not only the soul of the Beat movement and literature. Like nearly all of Kerouac's writing, On The Road is thinly fictionalized autobiography, filled with a cast made of Kerouac's real life friends, lovers, and fellow travelers. Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's alter-egos, On the Road is a cross-country bohemian odyssey. This novel is penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture. (Kerouac: pp 15-17) Dean has trouble expressing his emotions, so he listens to music to make himself feel better about situations. Kerouac uses music in serious moments throughout the novel, which makes music an important part in the book. Not only does Kerouac use music in serious moments in the book, he also uses music in social events as well. Sal and Dean go to clubs on a regular basis to dance and listen to music. Sal goes on to say “We went to the club, had some drinks, and danced to the music like we wanted to” (Kerouac 106). Sal and Dean go to clubs after a hard week to listen to music and let loose. The Beat Generation uses music in ways no other literally era has. Music has never played a role in novels the way the Beat Generation has used it.

On the other hand, Midnight Cowboy remains one of a handful of films that stay in our memory after the others have evaporated. Its love story between two drifters, the naïve Joe Buck and the street-savvy Ratso Rizzo. Voight and Hoffman both won Oscar nominations as best actor.

The use of music throughout the Beat Generation changed the way people listen to music today. Not only did it change the way people listen to music, it changed the way people lived there everyday life. People looked up to musicians and made music part of their everyday life. To the people “Jazz was a fundamental part of the Beat subculture.

Discussion

The Beat Generation shocked a lot of people by the use of sex throughout the novels in this time period. The language was vulgar at times and somewhat disturbing.

On the Road is the story of two young men, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, who travel frantically back and forth across the American continent seeking ...