Discovering the Road with Steinbeck and Kerouac

Although ten years separated their respective journeys, Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck expressed similar views in their road narratives. They focused on the rapidly evolving American societal landscape, while using the theme of mobility as a “central structural metaphor” (Cresswell). That is, both authors used exploration through time and movement as a Modernist method of alignment with their exploration of American society. Kerouac and Steinbeck, despite a significant gap in age, were also united by their their “natural anarchism”, or dissenting opinion on American consumerism and selfishness during the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, “the people Kerouac describes with the most passion are the very ones society does it best to ignore” (Cresswell). Likewise, “Steinbeck preferred to be in the company of the social marginalized” (Dunphy). Both of them shared a mutual attraction to junkies, actors, gypsies, and the hobos, and were not afraid to delve into what they saw as the more interesting, more truthful America. However, their differences were just as extensive. Take for example, the shift in generation that stemmed from the aforementioned age gap. The older, arguably more wiser Steinbeck masterfully viewed man and nature, looking for motives, consequences, and predictability. Conversely, Kerouac only sought explanation of and for himself. This naïve inner reflection resulted in the search for masculinity in the foundation of American ideals: those of manhood, self-realization and conquest. This became characteristic of Kerouac and the Beats, a symbol of their own Manifest Destiny. As Kerouac was fighting against the very system that benefited him, he became like Steinbeck’s rediscovered America - contradictory and confusing. This ob...

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