Anti-consumerism in the works of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Roth After World War II, Americans became very concerned about "keeping up with the Joneses" . Ordinary people were interested in realizing the American dream not only because of post-war optimism, but also because of the economic emphasis on advertising that found a daily new outlet in highway billboards, radio programs and that new and popular medium , television. . With television advertising becoming the new way to show Americans what they didn't (and shouldn't) come a broad and fascinated interest in owning all kinds of things, products and devices suddenly needed in every home. You could not only hear about new necessary items, but also see them. Meanwhile, markets and small shops were being dismantled to create the supermarket, a temple of consumerism where any passerby can walk in and buy almost anything they want without thinking about their neighbor, who runs the ailing fruit stand around the corner. The literary rebellion of the 1960s was, in part, about the desire to overthrow this growing consumer culture. Not everyone was so easily lulled into the lulling slogans and jingles of television advertising and the lure of the national supermarket. Poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jack Kerouac began to fight, in writing, against the oppression of having. As Buddhists, these writers saw the growing desire to satisfy whims and desires with easily purchased objects as detrimental to the ability to transcend suffering (rather than eliminate it). Combining the strategies of Asian Buddhist monks with the American transcendentalist theory provided by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emer......half of the paper......and when the rest of the nation was blindly enjoying their television programs and the conveniences of the supermarket, these writers made strong statements warning against loving things. During the 1950s and 1960s, many middle- and upper-class Americans had worked hard to afford conveniences, but Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Roth would say that it is not enough to "deserve" one's participation in consumer culture. Rather, they would say that consumer culture, by its nature, is mentally and culturally enslaving and to be avoided whenever possible for the sake of the integrity of the individual spirit. Works Cited: Allen, Donald (ed.). The new American poetry 1945-1960. Berkeley, CA: U. of California P. 1960. Kerouac, Jack. Dharma wanderers. New York: Penguin Books. 1958.Roth, Philip. Goodbye, Columbus and Five Tales. New York: Modern Library. 1959.