Alone On A Mountaintop, By Alberto Rios

The power of silence can cut through anything, but who says this? Our family members, friends, society? Is this what is best for us? To keep quiet and not speak our minds in fear of the consequences? Our reputation could be at stake if we say the wrong thing at the wrong moment. If our curiosity is not aloud to get the best of us how are we to learn? When society gets ahold of you it is difficult to escape its grasp. In “Alone on a Mountaintop,” by Jack Kerouac, it explains how he tries to forget society’s rules and break-free. Alberto does something similar in his essay, “The Secret Lion.” Alberto Rios attempts to defy society, at much younger age than Kerouac, and gets hurt because of it. The “Beat Generation” included authors who wrote many great essay’s, short stories, and poems. Although this starting group was small, they had an incredible impact on literature. The four people who are the “founders” of this movement are Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal …show more content…
They are silenced all day in school and at their homes, because they did not want to say the wrong thing and get in trouble. They are prisoners to society, not in that they are not able to do anything, but they are not able to say anything due to of fear. This is how “Alone on a Mountaintop” starts off— he is going to live on the mountaintop for a few months to try and let society slip his memory. He does not want the pressure that it puts on people, or the silence that comes with it. Jack wrote, “Sometimes I’d yell questions at the rocks and trees, and across gorges, or yodel— “What is the meaning of the void?” The answer was perfect silence, so I knew. —” I see this as yelling for the sake of freedom, from society. If you started yelling or even yodeling in the middle of Chicago people would judge you and remember you as the person who yodeled in