Eternal Pursuit For Belief-the Analysis On On The Road From The Perspective Of Frye's Myth-Archetypal Theory

Jack Kerouac was one of the greatest writers in American literary history.He created many popular masterpieces using his unique way of “spontaneous writing”.On the Road is the most famous one.This work takes Kerouac's real experience as the archetype.It vividly reflects the life and spiritual condition of American young people in 1960 s.The protagonists of the novel are epitomes of the Beat Generation.They drove at high speed along the road.Drug taking and intemperance are all their tags.They ignored the political authority,mundane concept,and traditional morality.In fact,the uninhibited behaviors of these young men showed their disappointment about the society and the country.American youth felt constrained and repression under the high-pressure environment of McCarthyism.The depressing domestic life forced them to find new belief on the road.Since On the Road has been published,scholars at home and abroad have researched this work from many different perspectives such as culture or theme etc.However,few scholars analyze it from the angle of myth-archetypal theory.This thesis not only analyzes the various myth-archetypal images in On the Road but also deeply analyzed different ways,processes and results of the protagonists' pursuing based on Frye's myth-archetypal theory.The tender aunt,profligate Marylou,uninhibited Dean or brave Galatea all have similarities with the deities and heroes in the myths.In the novel “road life” and “family life” also have special meaning in the way of protagonists' pursuing.There are two beats Sal and Dean in On the Road,they have different spiritual experience during their pursing journey,which lead to different results of them.Sal recognizes the reality and finally returns to the mainstream society,while Dean is still crazy on the road.He continues his travel of pursuing belief,even though his belief is windy and unrealistic.Through text analysis,this thesis draws following conclusion: The pursuits of the protagonists on dream and belief in On the Road continue the pursuing spirit of the human being from the myths.Everyone should have belief.However,the different destinies of Dean and Sal warn the Chinese youth people under the background of pursuing The Chinese Dream.Chinese young man should always stick to the bottom line of moral,set up the great belief and be a man of value.