A Comparison of On the Road and Crying of Lot 49 Essay -- comparison c

In both Jack Kerouacs, On the Road, and Thomas Pynchons emit of pile 49 the characters act in a degenerate manner distant of social norms. This in turn leads to a deviant sub-cultural group which competes with the transfer authorities for indicator. Deviance in both novels is usually defined as a certain type of behaviour, such as an inebriated prof babbling on in a lecture hall change with students or a group of teenagers frolicking naked in a city park on a hot and sunny afternoon. However, deviance rout out also encompass both ideas and attributes (Sagarin, 1975). The primary understanding of deviance rests in the reactions of observers, something becomes deviant because an individual, group or society takes offense and reacts damagingly (Cohen, 1966, Lofland, 1969). These negative reactions occur because onlookers interpret what they see and hear as being bad, insane, strange, immoral, non-conforming, or wrong. Negative responses do more than define deviance they serve as mechanisms of social control and world-beater. In examining these novels from a sociological perspective, both Kerouac and Pynchon get wind conflicts between mainstream society and sub-cultural groups. The deviant behaviour, thoughts, and attributes observed from the characters within the novels provide a strong argument for capital of Texas Turks conflict theory of deviance, which examines power and cultural conflict as a basis for deviant behaviour. To begin, Austin Turks conflict theory of crime divides society into two groups those with power the authorities and those without power the subjects. In Pynchons novel The Crying Of administrate 49, this is legitimateized by contrasting Pierce Inverarity, a California real estate mogul to those of low social economic class... ...sh-Catholic background, and his resemblance to a Fitzgerald hero, with a tragic death and foul dust floating in the wake of his dreams (153). However, both of the novels express those subjects livi ng by values beyond the social norms as having some power to change societal norms. By examining Turks theory of conflict between authorities and subjects, it becomes apparent the deviant behaviour observed from the characters in both novels is an influencing method of power to convert cultural and societal norms. WORKS CITED Dugdale, John. Thomas Pynchon Allusive Parables of Power. New York St.Martin, 1990 Gomme, Ian McDermid. The iniquity Line Deviance and Crime in Canada. Toronto HBJ 1993. Kerouac, Jack. On The Road. New York Penguin books, 1955 Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying Of Lot 49. New York Harper & Row, 1966