The financial prosperity experienced by the United States in the years following the Second World War created a new American identity. A television in the living room, a Cadillac in the driveway, one boy, one girl, a wife in the kitchen, and Rex by the fireplace. This is the stereotypical, conservative family of the 1950s whose existence was not without a counterpart. A radical reaction to the conformity and ignorance of the post-war era, later …showed first 75 words of 1491 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1491 total…and recognized by those yearning to escape, more were inspired to change their lives. This process of exchange between art and society demonstrates the significance that literature can have on a group, it is the society's voice. Characters such as Dean Moriarity, Sal Paradise, and Bill Lee were the American anti-heroes that all held dearly to them the Beat ideal and gave a voice to the cultural redefinition of the American Dream of the 1950s.