When rock ‘n’ roll galvanized the youth into action and created a generation gap, a posse of mostly white artists who called themselves the beats highlighted a values gap in the 1950s America. The term might have been derived from their feeling of being beaten down by American culture. They preferred to live unconventional lives as fugitives from a culture they detested. As a prominent subculture group the Beats rebelled against their role in family as a breadwinner inside the ideal nuclear American family. Beat generation became an epitome of existential philosophy which is concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. These personal choices become unique without the necessity …show more content…
. . hopped freight trains” (Ehrenreich 53). The Beat men were not ready to surrender personal freedom, and marriage was not necessary condition for sexual relationship nor did it matter if one was heterosexual or homosexual. The Beat group comprising poets, artists and writers harshly criticised the sterility and conformity of American life, the meaningless of American politics and the emptiness of popular culture. Two gifted writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg lead the early Beat Generation. They rejected conventional standards laid down by society and tried for artistic expression. The best seller On the Road (1957) struck hard against the established American culture and lifestyles. The book with its freewheeling adventures with a car thief and con artist shocked some readers initially, but eventually became a classic in American literature. Poet Allen Ginsberg blasted the same conventions through his long controversial poem “Howl” (1956) read out in 1955. The poem and its publisher City Lights bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti was put to trail after a year. Ginsberg also faced legal charges for obscenity. It was only later after getting positive feedbacks about its literary and social merit that the book was endorsed by American