reflection essay
Throughout this abbreviated summer semester, we have explored the challenge of belief and
the benefits of uncovering a sense of spirituality that binds one to the divine and all others. From Dillard to
Hesse to Kerouac, our authors have compelled us to see religion not as an institution built on dogma, but as
an experience derived from compassion and responsibility. Within this sacred space, as Kerouac explores,
we experience IT, a holy understanding of the world that awakens one to the immanent condition of being
interconnected.
Given this backdrop, and foreshadowing the call to action found in both Buckminster Fullers poem and
David Foster Wallaces commencement address (our Week 7 material), this final assignment asks you to
consider how Jack Kerouacs On the Road offers a spiritual alternative to a modern world conditioned
through expressions of materialism/consumerism, the importance of being (or appearing) well adjusted,
and, as both the Beats and Foster Wallace stress, the essential lonesomeness of adult life.
In other words, thinking of the cultural and religious frames developed throughout this semester, how does
On the Road offer a spiritual alternative (meaning: a sacred understanding unbound by religious
institutions and traditions) that leads one away from conformity and apathy and toward a reality
expressed through empathetic acts of loving kindness and compassionate responsibility?
Or does it? You may also disagree, ultimately using the frames of Kerouacs novel to argue against his
alternative (or that an alternative even exists)if you take this route, you should end your essay by
suggesting what might work, using as much of our material as possible to do so.
Your final essay should not be a mere summary of the spiritual themes in On the Road generally, nor should it
provide a broad outlining of Kerouacs alternative spirituality more specificallyrather, final essays should
develop a close reading of the significance, meanings, and implications of the spiritual and religious motifs
Kerouac utilizes in order to challenge and respond to the vacuity of 1950s society.
In writing your essay, you should:
1) Establish a sustained argument regarding the nature of Kerouacs spiritual alternative,
2) Draw from our supporting materials to legitimate, question, or challenge the coherency & value of
this alternative,
3) Consider the ethical and moral implications, and
4) Using your voice, discuss the relevance for todays society.
Most broadly, then, more than responding to and reflecting on Kerouac, this final project is asking you to
explore how On the Road outlines an alternative spiritual vision of existing in this world with others, the
aim/value/problems of this vision, and, most importantly perhaps, the significance or irrelevance of this
spiritual alternative in dealing with the most dire problems facing 1950s society and our own contemporary
moment.
Importantly, you do not need to agree with Kerouacs spiritual alternative, or support that he even has
one.
As with essay #1, the following additional questions might helpplease note, these are included to help get
you thinking and need not be answered nor made the basis of/for your essay (the most important elements
are included in the above description, particularly the areas highlighted in blue and red):
v What is the connection between spiritual understanding and experience? Can religion be mediated?
Should it be?
v What happens when religious belief and spirituality are unbound from dogma and authority?
v What are the implications of locating the holy outside of religious institutions?
v How do people engage religion in their personal quest for wholeness? What do people seek in
religion? What kinds of questions do they ask?
v How does the self understand, communicate with, and engage the divine? What, in turn, does this
provide, specifically when we think of morals and ethics?
v How do people express their faithfulness or their commitment to what is sacred or transcendent,
and how do these practices shape their engagement with others?
v How does spirituality insert itself into issues of apathy/empathy, hate/love, war/peace?
v Why do we suffer/why is there evil? Is this problem related to the quest for justice in religion and
society?
v What is the role of society and culture, specifically as it relates to ethical conduct and moral codes?
v How does culture free and/or imprison the individual? Can spirituality offer a solution? How?
Structure: In constructing your response, you MUST draw directly and significantly from our course material.
At the very least, in addition to a sustained discussion/use of Kerouacs On the Road, you must use the ideas
presented within FIVE of our additional class materialsplease note, additional material must come from
our course, but can be drawn from anything (from PPTs to readings to films), including all the material
connected to Dillard (as well as Holy the Firm), Hesse (as well as Siddhartha), and the material for week 7.
Argumentative Aim: The aim of a critical reflection essay is not only to locate a main idea or primary
message, but to take a step back and ask how, or what, this reflects about specific themes, which, in our
case, relate to issues of spirituality, religious understandings, and moral implications. In this regard, the most
jarring critical analyses may be those that expose underlying truths or hidden assumptions, locating what a
work/author says both explicitly and implicitly. Your role as a cultural critic is to dig to this level, to ask not
only what On the Road offers readers in terms of spirituality and religious understanding, but what you, from
a removed vantage point, uncover as important and worth critically writing about.
In other words, engage Kerouac and the nature of his spiritual alternative by asking bold questions, using
Dillard, Hesse, and any of our assorted supporting material to construct and develop a critical perspective,
locating what On the Road says about the nature of the divine and the impact of experiencing the sacred in
modern America. You must make an argumentthis assignment is not about relating what Kerouac tells us,
but asks you to establish a clear and well-supported critical assessment of why this is important.
Requirements: and includes in-text citations & works cited
page.
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