Book of Blues by Jack Kerouac

Book of Bluesis a collection of Blue Poetry poetry by Jack Kerouac.

Jack Kerouac was not your typical writer during the fifties and sixties. He had his own style that, although it was widely criticized, was brutally honest and real. Kerouac was referred to as a “jazz poet” because most of his work was divided into “choruses” and tended to ramble or as Jack called it: “blow,” like an instrument. Jack’s work was a reflection of his own life, the people he knew, and his travels. The characters in his novels were dubbed heroes of transformation and risk. Kerouac has even been praised for his commitment to “real” writing, where facts do not need to be exaggerated to entertain an audience, editing is completely unnecessary and a waste of time, and opinions can be expressed and need not be politically correct. Jack’s writing philosophies and style can be directly attributed to his belief systems. Jack was born and raised a devout Catholic, a religion that he and his ever-present mother clang to after the death of his 9-year old older brother, Gerard. In the wake of Gerard’s death, Kerouac began believing that, as he stated in his “Biographical Resume, Fall 1957,” that “all living things and all things may go to Heaven”(Kerouac). His faith streamed through his books and poems, maintaining that he was anxious to enter into heaven to be with his brother. It was also Jack’s belief that “Earth’s dogmatic mistakes have nothing to do with Heaven,” (Kerouac) indicating that he was not overly concerned with making bad decisions while here on earth and that in the end all is pardoned. Considering his abundant drug and alcohol abuse throughout his life, it is almost as if he had to believe that his sins would be forgiven. However, Jack does lead us to believe that he does indeed care about what we, as people, do during our lives on this planet. Immediately after high school, Jack attended Columbia University to pursue his football aspirations as well as to earn a degree, guaranteeing that he would be successful in life. Kerouac later joined the military to fight for his country in World War II. However, he was honorably discharged after only 10 days of service for what his medical report described as "strong schizoid trends."

Kerouac also made several references to our earth and perceived its current state in a negative light. To him the earth represented death. In his poem “On Tears,” Kerouac says: “I wept to understand the trap mortality and personal blood of earth,” indicating that he feels trapped by the inevitable death from this earth. In his poem “Heaven,” Kerouac also describes viewing our planet as “thru the brown grain of this turd earth.” Jack’s drunken words are often dark, but vividly encompass his true feelings about the condition of our earth and its purpose. Smog is a type of air pollution that is widely regarded to as being in a “dirty” city or town. It is the lack of smog that Midwestern areas pride themselves on, as well as the fact that smog in the air can directly result in dangerous chemicals entering a person’s body. Jack Kerouac made it obvious in several of his writings that he did not like smog and enjoyed escaping from it while on his travels across the country. In his “53rd Chorus,” Kerouac relates “LA Smog” to “Heaven Cellar door” (Kerouac). Making this relation infers that the smog in LA is like the exit of heaven. From this we can see that Kerouac is opposed to the areas of smog and frowns upon its existence, even leading us to assume it is an actual sin that leads to an abolishment from heaven. Kerouac also regards the use over use of gasoline in automobiles, which of course contributes to our problem of global warming. During the “19th Chorus” of Kerouac’s poem, he says: “Instead put atomic energy in the ass of his machine” (Kerouac). Not only does he shed negative light on gas by dubbing it “atomic energy,” but he also demoralizes the automobile by referring to its gas tank as its “ass.” This latent disrespect for unnecessarily fueling up a car, gives us great insight as to how Kerouac indeed does care about our environment and how he has no respect for those who do not. Overcrowding is also an environmental issue that our world is faced with today. There are many people who are overly concerned with the effect this will have on our planet for future generations, as well as many people who claim it is a woman’s right to bare as many children as she chooses. Both arguments are well-founded. Kerouac, however, stays out of the political views regarding overcrowding and instead offers his blunt opinion of how he believes having multiple children is just plain crazy. In his poem “46th Chorus,” he states: “Babies born screaming in this town are miserable examples of what happens everywhere. Bein crazy is the least of my worries” (Kerouac). Obviously parenthood is not something that appears to appeal to Kerouac, although he did have one daughter, Jan, who surprisingly enough also died from alcohol and drug abuse. Kerouac wrote a poem entitled “Tree,” where he describes a tree living in the city whose life is not that great at all. He uses negative phrases such as “But a tree has a living suffering shape” and “Rises from gray rain pavements to traffic in the bleak brown air” (Kerouac). Here Kerouac paints a picture of an earth no longer suitable to even house trees. He claims the environment is not ideal for this living tree and leads us to believe that the tree is enduring nothing but pain and suffering. Although Kerouac seems to just have negative opinions about earth and no real suggestions on how to better our environment, he does make several references to his personal expectations of people in general and how they should behave. In Kerouac’s 52nd chorus, he proclaims: “For krissakes speak up & be true or shut up & go to bed” (Kerouac). Kerouac is provoking us to think about all of the complaints we are constantly making about our lives and all without actually doing something about it. If we aren’t going to stand up for what we believe in and be honest with ourselves and others, we might as well just stay home and stop complaining. Easier said than done. Kerouac holds people accountable for what they do and what their life purpose is while on this earth. He seems to care more about integrity and character, and less about the actual act of sinning. As he states in his “18th Chorus,” Kerouac is annoyed by lazy people and says, “I’ve no time to dally hassel.” In his “22nd Chorus,” Kerouac warns us “For the world’s an Eye and the universe is seeing” (Kerouac). His statement puts the steering wheel in the hands of the individual person, claiming that the world is watching, so be aware of that with the choices you make and the way you live your life.

Jack Kerouac may have been many things, but dishonest he was not. He said it like it was and didn’t apologize for his unfiltered opinions. In his famous novel “On the Road,” Kerouac exclaims that "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles." His words are consistent, reiterating his belief that you just have to go out there and do what feels right, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, stand up for what you believe in, have the desire to be forgiven for your sins because nobody is perfect, and don’t be boring and conventional. One could take this advice/belief system and really make a difference in our world, but if not, they should at least acknowledge that they are not doing anything grandiose, be honest about it, and ask for forgiveness for the bad decisions they have made. Works Cited -Andy Mueller