Gandhi, Hemingway, and Kerouac: perspectives on Western civilization

Gandhi vs. Ernest Hemingway and Jack Kerouac on Western Civilization

Gandhi had many criticisms of Western civilization, largely due to the fact that he felt it lacked spirituality. When Gandhi was asked by a reporter what he thought of Western civilization, he replied "I think it would be a good idea" (Gandhi, n.d.). It was clear from that type of comment that Gandhi had a serious concern with the way people in the West were running their lives and the type of spirituality that they had. He looked at things very differently from the way that most people in the West do, and he was not the only one that had this impression. Others that shared this complaint about Western civilization were Ernest Hemingway and Jack Kerouac.

Hemingway felt that the Western world was not being run in the way that it should be. He was concerned about the government and, along with most of the novelists and playwrights of that time, felt that there was no spirituality left within the Western world (Simmons, 2006). He was more interested in anarchy and dissent than he was in correcting the government that was in place at that time, because he felt that the spirituality that was needed was lost and could not be regained. However, he was not the only person that had this type of opinion. Jack Kerouac also shared much of the dissent and concern that Hemingway had for the civilization in the West, although his views were not the same as Gandhi's.