The Vanishing American Hobo
E1020550
"The Vanishing American Hobo" is an essay by Jack Kerouac reflecting on the decline of the traditional American hobo and the changing nature of freedom and wandering in modern society.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Vanishing American Hobo canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T13080079 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Vanishing American Hobo Context triple: [Lonesome Traveler, hasPart, The Vanishing American Hobo]
-
A.
I Am a Lonesome Hobo
"I Am a Lonesome Hobo" is a folk-rock song by Bob Dylan, featured on his 1967 album *John Wesley Harding*, that tells the reflective tale of a drifter warning others about the consequences of pride and greed.
-
B.
Down and Out in America
Down and Out in America is a 1986 documentary film that examines homelessness and poverty in the United States, directed by actress and filmmaker Lee Grant.
-
C.
Hobo with a Shotgun
Hobo with a Shotgun is a 2011 Canadian exploitation-style action film starring Rutger Hauer as a vigilante drifter waging violent justice in a corrupt city.
-
D.
Down and Out
"Down and Out" is a popular hip-hop track by rapper Cam'ron, known for its soulful production and standout status in his discography.
-
E.
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse is a novel by Louise Erdrich that follows a lifelong impostor priest serving on an Ojibwe reservation, blending spiritual mystery, identity, and Native American history.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Vanishing American Hobo Target entity description: "The Vanishing American Hobo" is an essay by Jack Kerouac reflecting on the decline of the traditional American hobo and the changing nature of freedom and wandering in modern society.
-
A.
I Am a Lonesome Hobo
"I Am a Lonesome Hobo" is a folk-rock song by Bob Dylan, featured on his 1967 album *John Wesley Harding*, that tells the reflective tale of a drifter warning others about the consequences of pride and greed.
-
B.
Down and Out in America
Down and Out in America is a 1986 documentary film that examines homelessness and poverty in the United States, directed by actress and filmmaker Lee Grant.
-
C.
Hobo with a Shotgun
Hobo with a Shotgun is a 2011 Canadian exploitation-style action film starring Rutger Hauer as a vigilante drifter waging violent justice in a corrupt city.
-
D.
Down and Out
"Down and Out" is a popular hip-hop track by rapper Cam'ron, known for its soulful production and standout status in his discography.
-
E.
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse is a novel by Louise Erdrich that follows a lifelong impostor priest serving on an Ojibwe reservation, blending spiritual mystery, identity, and Native American history.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (38)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | essay ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
American counterculture
ⓘ
road literature ⓘ |
| author | Jack Kerouac ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| criticizes |
conformity in mid-20th-century America
ⓘ
criminalization of homelessness and vagrancy ⓘ increasing regulation of public space ⓘ |
| hasAuthorialPointOfView | first-person reflection ⓘ |
| hasPerspectiveOn |
loss of anonymity in modern society
ⓘ
police and legal harassment of hobos ⓘ romantic past of American wandering life ⓘ |
| hasTitle | The Vanishing American Hobo ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
American hobo culture
ⓘ
Kerouac's own experiences with travel and wandering ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryForm | essay ⓘ |
| literaryGenre | nonfiction ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | Beat literature ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
American culture
ⓘ
freedom ⓘ hobos ⓘ modern society ⓘ wandering ⓘ |
| movement | Beat Generation ⓘ |
| narrativeMode | essayistic ⓘ |
| partOf | Jack Kerouac bibliography ⓘ |
| portrays | hobo as symbol of freedom ⓘ |
| theme |
changing nature of freedom in America
ⓘ
decline of the traditional American hobo ⓘ impact of modern institutions on individual freedom ⓘ romanticization of the hobo lifestyle ⓘ surveillance and control in modern life ⓘ vagrancy and social marginalization ⓘ |
| workFocusesOn |
American hobos in the 20th century
ⓘ
contrast between past and present forms of wandering ⓘ social attitudes toward vagrancy ⓘ |
| workOf | Jack Kerouac ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Vanishing American Hobo Description of subject: "The Vanishing American Hobo" is an essay by Jack Kerouac reflecting on the decline of the traditional American hobo and the changing nature of freedom and wandering in modern society.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.