Quest And Redemption

In 1950 s, Kerouac's novel On the Road was published, and it shocked the American literary circles at that time.On the Road was known as the clearest and the most important expression of the "Beat Generation" by the New York Times. From then on,On the Road has become a symbol of freedom, ideals and the way of life.Kerouac took to the literary world after the Second World War. Post-war America, although facing with such political and economic problems as the cold war and post-war reconstruction, had rapid economic development, population growth and consumption increase.The United States entered a new era, the era of "consumer society". It emphasized spending and materialpossession, constantly destroying traditional value systemthat emphasized on saving, thrifty, self-restraint and condemnation of impulse. When the production was not for need, but for consumption, the consumer society brought new changes to the public discourse and ways of thinking, which undoubtedly influenced the literary creation. The literary creation, in turn, presented new content.The study of Kerouac cannot overlook the rise of the "Consumer Society".The purpose of focusing on Kerouac's novels in the context of Consumer Society is to restore Kerouac to his social background, Kerouac used his novel to re-interpret a new United States.Baudrillard thought that the consumer society appeares to be an existence of absent symbols.Traditional objects have signifying and symbolic function. In the consumer society, the traditional goods become purely functional items, in accordance with the needs of industrial production, which can be arbitrarily assembled and disassembled. Goods are not itself but symbols that represent the difference. People consume everything in the symbolic sense, including their own.The theory of "Consumer Society" provides a new perspective for the study of Kerouac's novels, especially On the Road.The previous study of this novel mostly focused on the freedom, openness and rebellion. In the perspective of consumer society theory, Kerouac is seen not writing about resistance. On the contrary, he caters to a new value.This dissertation analyzed Kerouac's On the Road series of novels from the aspects of “constructing a new America” and “being a new American”.First, in terms of constructing a new America, Kerouac tried to find a new America after World War II.His first novel, The Town and the City, can be seen as a prelude to On the Road.The small town values are not sufficient to cope with the Americans spiritual desire.Kerouac shows the disappearing of the moral values of the small town, which is gradually taken over by the values of the town through conflicts of two generations.Town youth leave to look for the America in their mind.The road is the beginning of the quest, as well as an openvision.The revisit to On the Road helps readers to find that Kerouac built a new America through the city narrative.America is a new space after the disappearance of the values of the small town. The space is filled with cars, drugs and sex. These cultural symbols are fully demonstrated the new landscapesand values of American consumer society, namely, the mobility, the change, the symbolicness.Many Critics argue that Kerouac's protagonist is the pioneer of revolt.Putting the protagonist of the novel in the context of consumer society, we will find that Dean is, rather than the revolt of the mainstream society, actually the representative of the hero.American culture has shifted its focus on hedonism, sightseeing, entertainment and show.These protagonists are representatives of the new American spirit, and become the protagonists of the consumers.They embody the technology legend.Kerouac tried to find America“on the road”. Roaming brings fusion of different races, different sexes, different life styles.However, the so-called integration reflects the hegemony of American ideology.Hegemony is very subtle, often hidden under the cloak of resistance.To show the hegemony we need to build two models.One model is that of molecular biology—double helix structure.On the Road series implied such a structure. One of the spirals was recognition of the value of a symbol which embodies the logic of capitalism fetishism; the other was that of consumption and enjoyment, which consisted of alcohol, women and other anti-social behaviors. The two helices complemented each other, reflecting that the core of the structure was the author's identification with the American ideology.The second model is the topological model—Mobius strip.Through the analysis of the drugs and sex images in Kerouac's novels, the dissertation reveals their meaning behind the behaviors.The use of drugs, the opening up of the sex proves to be a new Americanforce, but it involves only a layer of meaning of drugs and sex. On the hand,indulging in drugs and sex is the absence of the force. The significance of the two form a complete Mobius ring.It means that, in the consumer society,it's not pleasure but trauma that exists forever. That is the ultimate goal of Kerouac's writing drugs and sex.Kerouac was young when writing The Town and the City and On the Road.He depicted a young American that was full of confidence and vitality. With time passing, Kerouac's late novels,for example, Desolation Angels, Lonesome traveler, Big Sur,shifted from the construction of national identity to self-cognition.If the construction of national identity is more outward, then, the cognition of the subject is inward.This involves the another aspect of Kerouac's novels— "Being a new American". The logic of consumer society brings the abyss of subject existence. The "subject" in the view of consumption society theory is a pseudo subject, which is a “Nada” wrapped by a symbolic name.“Subject”is not to be called by the language, but becomes the reflection of the subject,atowards-death being. Kerouac attempts to quest for the answer to "who I am" —I am Nada, the abyss for the existence of the subject.In the face of the abyss of the subjective existence, Kerouac designs the road of redemption.There are three strategies he has adopted.One strategy is nostalgia,which establishes the significance in the consumer society. In the second strategy, Kerouac calls for death that can be recycled in the life through the experience of death in the consumer society.Death is a luxury and the only alternative in the system of life governed by the value and usefulness Strategy three is to curb anxiety by questing for the roots.Here, Kerouac's roots grow in cities rather than in rural areas.Like opium, the city attracts the hero, and the thoughts of the city are the embodiment of the superiority of the city people. City is the proof of their ability to control the world. Quest itself becomes the identity card for modern man. IT is impossible to find, and thus attitude is the core of the value of the quest.From the identification with consumer social landscapes to the questioning of the consumer society symbol, Kerouac has been using his novels to reveal the symbolization of the devil's mask. However,Kerouac himself has been symbolized by the mass culture.He was called the "King of the Beat", and his way of life was regarded as popular and fashionable. He was in the media spotlight, in display and on sale as the synonym of rebellion.Kerouac became a cultural symbol rewritten by the American culture in the 60's and was accepted by the Chinese in the same style in cross cultural communication.