The period before the 1950s was considered the era of conformity. At that time, the majority of Americans lived in suburban areas called Levittowns, felt threatened by communism, and were driven with an overt conscience. The men went to work all dressed in a gray or blue flannel suit while the women were domesticated as they stayed at home to cook, clean and care for the children. For Americans of that era, eating dinner with family and watching television every night was considered a conservative tradition. However, all this quickly changed after World War II. Tired of the boring, traditional daily lifestyle they lived at the time, most Americans felt "down" in a sense. From 1984 onwards, the period following World War II would be, as Jack Kerouac and John Clellon Holmes put it, known as the Beat Generation. Those who were part of the Beat Generation did not believe in heterosexual jobs and lived in dirty apartments, selling drugs and committing crimes. Some of the beliefs of the Beat Generation include the rejection of mainstream American values, the exploration of alternative forms of sexuality such as homosexuality as well as experimentation with drugs such as cocaine and LSD. The Beat Generation was meant to echo the Lost Generation of the 1920s, but it had a greater impact than its historical counterpart. This generation was created because people were tired of doing the exact same thing every day, it was becoming repetitive. These “rebels,” as some would call them, wanted to deviate from the normal daily life expected of every American. They wanted to create their own ways of life, exploring ways of life that were mostly looked down upon, revolutionary if you like, changing beliefs and way of life...... middle of paper .... .. now and then to simply keep their sanity. Works Cited1. Hemmer, Kurt. Encyclopedia of Beat Literature. New York: Facts on File, 2007. Print.2. Knight, Brenda. Women of the Beat Generation: writers, artists and muses at the heart of a revolution. Berkeley, CA: Conari, 1996. Print.3. PJ Johnston. “Dharma Bums: The Beat Generation and the Creation of a Countercultural Pilgrimage.” » Buddhist-Christian Studies 33.1 (2013): 165-179. MUSE project. Internet. December 3, 2013. .4. Ries, Charles P. “Baby Beat Generation and the 2nd San Francisco Renaissance.” Hiram Poetry Review 67 (2006): 48-51. Literary reference center. Internet. December 3, 2013.5. Tales of Beatnik Glory by Ed Sanders; Naked Angels: The Lives and Literature of the Beat Generation by John TytellReviewed by: Barry WallensteinContemporary Literature, Vol. 18, no. 4 (fall 1977), pp.. 542-551