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**French**, Jack Kerouac's first language, was spoken at home until his late teens. His father, Leo Kerouac, was a printer who had emigrated from Quebec, Canada, and his mother, Gabrielle-Ange Levesque, was a homemaker of French-Canadian descent. Kerouac's fluency in French greatly influenced his writing style and themes, which often explored the tension between his French-Canadian heritage and his American identity.