Jack Kerouac, Vanity of Duluoz

R. J. Ellis (University of Birmingham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1968

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Vanity of Duluoz traces the development of Jack Duluoz, and takes the form of a written address – a letter, as it were – to his wife. It tells of how Jackie Duluoz, a bright, enthusiastic boy and brilliant football player, wins a sports scholarship and, as a consequence, moves out of his French-Canadian culture into an alien world, where “most” of the students “are very rich” (31). The football team does include other sports scholarship boys, but, since Duluoz harbors writing ambitions, he feels he fits in nowhere. At Columbia College these problems persist. The resulting tensions are neatly skewered by the way Duluoz’s failure to hold a place on the team is related to his lack of commitment to football, as he …

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669 words

Citation: Ellis, R. J.. "Vanity of Duluoz". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 April 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8591, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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