by David Wills

Created on: February 19, 2009

America has always been a nation of expansion, of travelling and growing and moving Founded by explorers from across the Atlantic, pushing West and South, over deserts and mountains and forests, to the very limits of the continent And into this frontier philosophy falls the place of the hobo, the vagrant, the bum The rail-riding, independent, footloose man of America: as happy in the wilderness as in the city; as content to watch his nation pass from the side of a train as watching cars from the side of the road These downtrodden and beaten figures have always been outcasts of society, yet they have a special place in the heart of the nation as brave troubadours who have shaped the cultural history of the country.

American literature and music is rife with hobo writers and characters Walt Whitman, Jack London, John Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie, Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen They may not always be seen as the average American, but their influence upon America
is undeniable. They celebrate and bring to popular culture the wandering cult of freedom, independence and exploration.

If one can put aside modern, preconceived notions of what America
stands for greed, aggression, oppression then what remains is the transcendentalist idealism of rugged independence, true freedom, and communing with nature. This is a far cry from that which Ginsberg railed against, but certainly informs the sense of loss that inspired his anger at a government that had turned the world against all Americans.

And before, during and after the Beat period, the American government certainly appeared to be seeking out and destroying all that pioneering settlers and founders had dreamt of. Any variation upon the standard, government endorsed view of national identity and individual rights, was denounced as Un-American and Communist. Yet all through history, we see the outstanding pieces of literature questioning such ideology.

But the Beat Generation and subsequent offshoots and related movements leant towards an alternative approach. They actively sought to create their own little space in the world, without overthrowing the dominant views. They wanted a hedonistic lifestyle, and they didn't originally protest for the right to live their way. Rather, they just did what they wanted and bore the brutal consequences. It seemed useless to try and to fail by creating a new and wrong regime that would dictate the lives of the people. "You can't fight City Hall," Kerouac said. "It keeps changing

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