Allie Baber
10/23/12

Beat Literature practice college paper
Through out the beat literature you can find recurring themes like religion that make the different stories/poems very similar. The beat generation rejects the American culture that covers up the disasters that are happening. They turned to Buddhism for peace. A big group of people called “the beats” went off the mainstream path and started doing things that were not typical to do during that time period. Some things that were not mainstream was the beats started to practice Buddhism and the way they write their stories and poem for example the style and run on sentences. The members of the Beat Generation rejected mainstream Western traditions because they felt those traditions were covering up what was wrong in 1950s America.
Through out the different beat literatures there are many references where the beats reject Western traditions and went off the mainstream path. In the Note on Religious Tendencies by Gary Snyder that the Beat Generation do “experimentation with narcotics […] and intelligent use of drugs.” (Religious Tendencies) This demonstrates the Beats would rather not follow the mainstream path and would rather do different things like try different kinds of drugs and experiment with them. The Beats wanted to push themselves away from being with the mainstream people. They want to do different things even if they were not acceptable. Trying the different drugs showed that the Beats were doing something different and were not following the mainstream path. In Big Sky Mind the Beats rejected all western religions and decided to follow Buddhism. “This cheery outlook seemed almost surreal to the early Beats, who were downcast and alienated not only by the looming Cold War But also by the bomb, the Holocaust, and World War two.” (Big Sky Mind) The Beats did not like how the western