On The Road
By: Jack Kerouac
Some people, groups and works of art are considered to represent the “voice of a generation”. For Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road”, it is a novel widely expressed to represent the literary Beat Generation. In the book, Jack Kerouac writes much like a letter back home to a friend. Kerouac tells of his travels, his friends and his thoughts. As a prescribed manifesto of the beatnik, it involves rebellion, spiritual quests, exploring different religions, rejection of materialism, examining the human condition, drug experimentation and sexual liberation. “On The Road” is a novel that revolves around wayward behavior, something apt for college students. Through the log of Kerouac’s life, you realize the true story isn’t in what happens at the grand end but what was there along the way. The beatniks of that generation were doing things that the generation before would have never thought was acceptable to do. The best way you can live your life thoroughly is through experience. Each year, the youth that are graduating from college have the opportunity to create their own counter culture. “On The Road” might inspire you to do the same.
“The best teacher is experience and not through someone’s distorted point of view.” – Jack Kerouac, “On The Road”
White Oleander
By: Janet Fitch
“White Oleander” by Janet Fitch is the most perfect example of the quintessential coming of age novel. It revolves around Astrid Magnussen, who after her mother is imprisoned for murder, is shuffled around foster home after foster home. At each new house, a new world is created for the reader where Astrid learns lessons about life and herself. In “White Oleander”, the most growth and strength you will have for yourself is when you are suffering the hardest. As Astrid gets thrown from foster home to foster home, you yourself feel the growth and the life she is leaving behind. The toxic and complicated relationship between Astrid and her mother have moving dialogues and brings up the question of what it means to be loved in a poisonous way. Each foster home reads of truth on some aspect of life. This novel couldn’t come at a better time than a period in your life where every phase is molding you.
“The phoenix must burn to emerge.” – Janet Fitch, “White Oleander”
A Brave New World
By: Aldous Huxley
In “A Brave New World”, a dystopian world is created where people are genetically made and groomed into a five-tier caste system where their position in life has been decided for them. The goal of their government is to weed out “unnecessary” strong emotions and relationships from society. Anytime an unwanted drive, emotion, or thought is expressed, a drug called “soma” is used to quell it down. The psychedelic drug puts you in a happy state where you are essentially mentally checked out. Huxley uses “A Brave New World” as a poignant way to depict where he saw society heading. That was 1932. Through the unveiling of the “savage” society living on the outskirts of the government, questions of the human condition are raised. The book deals with things people our age are beginning to question; the morality of consumer society, the role the government plays in our lives and what it means to be happy in this world. What does it mean to be mindlessly happy and sedated when you are not living truthfully, life’s scars and all?
