Beginning of Essay
Near the end of the Second World War, a “movement” was formed by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs as well as a group of other writers and artists. This movement found its voice during the fifties and became especially influential during the sixt ....

Middle of Essay
.... of William Burroughs. The word was passed on through Burroughs on to Allen Ginsberg and a friend named Jack Kerouac. Ginsberg, hearing Huncke use the word in the original street slang usage, felt that the word meant “exhausted, at the bottom the world, looking up or out, sleepless, wide-eyes, perceptive, rejected b society, on your own, streetwise.” Kerouac was completely captivated by the mood and tone of the word ‘beat.’ He insisted that the word possessed a deeper quality and meant something spiritual and mysterious. That kind of beatness is what Kerouac was describing in himself and his friends. They were bright young Americans that c ....