Statement of Purpose

To call the Beat writers, this relatively small group of struggling writers, students, hustlers, and drug addicts a "generation" was to make the claim that they were representative and important—the beginnings of a new trend, to the Lost Generation. The members of the beat generation were new bohemian libertines, who engaged in a spontaneous, sometimes messy, creativity. The beat writers produced a body of written work controversial for its non-conformity and for its non-conforming style. The Beat Generation itself has had a huge influence on Western Culture overall, larger than just the effects of some writers and artists on other writers and artists. During the very conformist post-World War II era they were one of the forces engaged in questioning traditional values which produced a break with the mainstream culture that to this day people react against it. There's no question that Beats produced a great deal of interest in lifestyle experimentation ( in regards to sex and drugs); and they had a large intellectual effect in questioning authority.
The essence of the phrase "beat generation" may be found in On the Road with the celebrated phrase: "Everything belongs to me because I am poor."


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