The Failure of Language in Malcolm and On the Road John Clellon Holmes in his essay "The Philosophy of the Beat Generation" characterized his young contemporaries as profoundly spiritual; for him, the very eccentricity of the 1950s, with their characteristic sexual promiscuity, drug addiction, petty crime and heterodox forms of self-expression, was an attempt to assert one's individuality in the atmosphere of pervasive conformism of that Age of Gold. And judging from the literature of this era four decades later one might conclude that the relentless search for one's true self was, in fact, what it was about this time. The formation of a young protagonist's identity (or its failure) is the dominant motif of the two most important works of the period: Malcolm by James Purdy and On the Road by Jack Kerouac, published in 1959 and 1957 respectively; their central characters, Dean Moriarty and Malcolm, separated from the primordial source of their identity – their fathers, are on a quest to regain contact with that fundamental aspect of their individuality. Defining oneself in relation to language is an essential part of this quest. There's a certain magnetism to Malcolm and Dean that wins over hobos, billionaires, singers and bohemians alike; but whatever the nature of their appeal, it is not linguistic. Indeed, both Malcolm and Dean are at odds with standard English. Malcolm's verbal innocence makes him an outsider to any environment he finds himself in; the pattern of corruption in the novel, therefore, requires that his mentors introduce him to the vocabulary that represents yet another aspect of evil with which they must "tame" him. This is a tall order, given the extent to which Malcolm is a… middle of paper… and they have appropriated the heroes of the generation (Krupat 407). Purdy's novel, on the other hand, denies his Everyman a father, humanity its God, and the world any meaning. Works Cited Adams, Stephen D. James Purdy. London: Vision, 1976. Holmes, John C. “The Philosophy of the Beat Generation.” On the road. Text and criticism. By Jack Kerouac. Ed. Scott Donaldson. New York: Penguin, 1979. 367-79. Kerouac, Jack. On the road. Ed. Scott Donaldson. New York: Penguin, 1979. Krupat, Arnold. "Dean Moriarty as the Holy Hero." On the road. Text and criticism. By Jack Kerouac. Ed. Scott Donaldson. New York: Penguin, 1979. 397-411. Lorch, Thomas M. "Purdy's Malcolm: A Unique View of the Radical Void." Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature. 6 (1965): 204-13.Purdy, James. Malcolm. London, New York: The Serpent's Tail, 1994.