Redefining the American Dream: The Beat Generation and its Literature.

The financial prosperity experienced by the United States in the years following the Second World War created a new American identity. A television in the living room, a Cadillac in the driveway, one boy, one girl, a wife in the kitchen, and Rex by the fireplace. This is the stereotypical, conservative family of the 1950s whose existence was not without a counterpart. A radical reaction to the conformity and ignorance of the post-war era, later …

…and recognized by those yearning to escape, more were inspired to change their lives. This process of exchange between art and society demonstrates the significance that literature can have on a group, it is the society's voice. Characters such as Dean Moriarity, Sal Paradise, and Bill Lee were the American anti-heroes that all held dearly to them the Beat ideal and gave a voice to the cultural redefinition of the American Dream of the 1950s.