The unsustainable lifestyle of the Beatnik.

摘要

On the Road by Jack Kerouac and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Torn Wolfe document the road trips and lifestyles of two countercultures, the Beats and the Pranksters. In comparing and contrasting the nuances and complexities of the two groups through stylistic analysis, I show the unsustainability in the lifestyles of the Beats and Psychedelics. In doing so, I take a social approach in analyzing the protagonists' inability to obtain their goals due to their tendency to retreat to the conformity they sought to avoid. I also trace their failures back to the breakdown of camaraderie as it gives way to self-interest. In addition, I explore how their drug use contributed to their demise. Furthermore, I take an economic approach to delve into the protagonists' failed search for the American Dream by deeming the protagonists culpable for structuring a lifestyle that cannot possibly be financially maintained. Finally, I take a literary approach to prove how the genre falls short of spawning the revolutionary changes its writers hoped to inspire and, therefore, never progressed beyond its niche status.