On the Road Outline

1.  Discuss Kerouac's use of the passage of time in the novel.

Kerouac's notion of time seems to be that of an entity that is constantly moving and constantly taking other people with it.

I.  In the novel, Sal feels many different emotions concerning this idea. As he sees his friends growing smaller in the rear window of a car as he leaves them, he regrets not being able to be a part of their lives permanently. However, the life he seeks makes such ideas impossible to achieve. This is also the case in the memories that Sal and Dean continually share. They cannot conquer the past, so they continually try to relive it with new memories.

II. Even though Sal has promised to marry and settle down with his new fiance, he cannot do so once Dean magically appears at his doorstep. As soon as Dean tempts him to, again, get on the road and travel, Sal has no other choice but to do as he says and follow Dean across the nation just like before.

III. The idea behind the never ending road is to be constantly moving from one point to another. The possibility of stopping in one spot and living there forever is unfathomable to Sal and Dean because the road is also a form of escape from their pasts, or better known as mistakes. Time, therefore, has no real meaning to Sal and Dean once they're on the road traveling from one spot to another. It actually does not even matter where they travel too only that they continue to move and just never stay in one area for too long. 

Outline

I.                   Sal has a good stable life and yet is bored with it and sees no meaning in his writing and so he goes on the adventure with Dean.

A.   Sal is married and has a stable life with a writing career ahead of him but loses interest in his everyday life.

a.      He meets Dean Moriarity and falls under the impression that Dean’s life is the most fun and easiest going life to have.

b.     Sal leaves his wife and decided to follow Dean to the West to try to find some leftover fun and adventure in his life.

II.                Dean has no sense of direction in life and just bounces from one place to another to try to squeeze some enjoyment from whatever he does, and Sal likes that kind of life for a while.

A.   Even though Sal starts off following Dean, Dean is nearly impossible to follow because of his nomadic tendencies which make him last a very short time in places.

a.      Sal meets new people when he gets left by Dean and connects his new and better friends to the fact that he is friends with Dean.

                                                                                     i.      Sal decides that Dean is getting him friendships and adventures, even with his absence, and so he keeps on trailing the troublemaking Dean.

III.             Dean ruins all their plans to go to Italy, pretty much screws Camille and the new girl over, and although Sal is the only person that has stuck by his side the whole time while everyone else left him, Dean leaves Sal really sick in Mexico.

A.   Dean is a simply selfish person and has no real regard for anyone but himself, even the best friend that stuck by his side when everyone else hated him,

a.      Sal has messed up friendships with other better people just so he could stick by Dean’s side and Dean is as ungrateful as can be.

                                                                                     i.      Sal realizes how much of an ass Dean really is and finally realizes how much of a scumbag he is, but he can’t help but to keep loving his best friend whom he calls his “brother”.

b.     Sal sees how Dean is with women and how badly he treats them and somewhat follows Dean’s behaviors and becomes a disrespectful player as well.

IV.            Sal starts realizing that Dean is somewhat of a scumbag and that his personality gets old and at one point or another, he must grow up and realize he needs the stable life he once had and threw out.

A.   Through the whole adventure, Sal sort of got the message that “You don’t really know what you have until it’s gone”

a.      He wants to start settling down again and having a stable life.

B.     Dean’s inability to find himself and make of himself a desperately lost soul.

a.      Sal can finally see how good he had it at first and how mind wrecking this life of hopeless soul searching was.

                                                                                     i.      He understands that it was never that he was lost, but he just needed someone with a worst situation to make him understand how good of a situation he really had.

On The Road

This book portrays The Beat Generation and it inability to comply with society's standards.

I. Jack leaves his home for work related purposes but instead ends up traveling and with Neal and being irresponsible. Society would have rather wanted for him to stay with his work ethic, get his job done and continue on with his responsibilities. Refusal to accept society’s norms.

II. Neal has a lack of social standing and does whatever he wants whenever he wants. He rejects authority along with Jack. Jack takes advantage of his night job as a police officer and Neal has a history of offences. Thieving.

III. Neal has no moral code. He puts himself first and only thinks of his needs and not the feelings of others. He left his friend in a random hospital in Mexico so he could go find girls rather than take care and watch over him. Complete lack of responsibility. Constantly wanting to find “it”, no matter the cost.

V. Drugs, alcohol, sex. Anti-conservative. Mentions of marijuana and alcohol abuse. Against monogamous sex.

Outline

The characters of On the Road epitomize what it means to be a member of the Beat Generation. Throughout the novel, the main characters fight against conformity and partake in wild, irrational activities that push society's boundaries.

I. Rejection of Conformity.

       a. Need to keep moving rather than settle down in a suburban lifestyle.

              i. Backlash against the conformist 50’s mentality. 

       b.Challenging socially accepted behavior.

              i. No interest in settling down to form a nuclear family unit. 

              ii. Refusal to look for a steady job              

              iii. Rejection of monogamy

II. Defiance of authority.

       a. Dean’s constant theft of cars, gas, and alcohol.

       b. Sal and Remy’s continual theft while on duty as night cops

              i. “We must cut down the cost of living” (p. 64)

III. Experimentation with drugs, sex, and alcohol.

       a. References to marijuana and other drugs.

       b. Unconventional sex experiments

              i. Dean wants Sal to have sex with Mary Lou 

       c. Abundant consumption of alcohol

IV. The pursuit of clarity and freedom. 

       a. Dean looks for true true freedom from societal constraints

              i. “He was BEAT- the root, the soul of Beatific” (p. 184)

              ii. Strives to challenge the norm

              iii. Need to keep moving and search for meaning-"It".

On the Road

Jack Kerouac seems to continually talk about through the narration of life on the road as something better and more excited then a stable lifestyle. He uses Dean and Sal as the vessels to exult the party lifestyle. The final thesis that I choose was: Jack Kerouac emphasis the unstable and abusive relationships between Sal’s and Dean and their respective female partners to glorify the irresponsible lifestyle of the “road”.

I.               Lifestyle of “The Road” requires Men who are not attached or can easily detach themselves from women.

a.     Sal leaving Terry for no reason

i.                Sal detaches himself merely because he lost interest in working hard for a relationship.

ii.              Removes himself from Terry’s child life easily, even though he had become almost a father figure to him.

b.     Eddie uses his wife for money and then ditches her when she runs out.  

II.             Dean emphasis who live the bachelor lifestyle are cheaters

a.     Dean cheating on Mary Lou with Camille

i.                Sal and Carlo idealize the fact Dean is able to balance two beautiful women.

ii.              Emotionally abusive to both woman by cheating on them yet still believing that they could love him. Glorifying the promiscuous lifestyle.

b.     Dean Cheating on Camille with Inez

III.           To glorify the “road” lifestyle, Kerouac shows that people can shirk their irresponsibility without any consequences

a.     Dean abandons his daughter and wife, yet Mary Lou takes him back

i.                Dean beats Marylou, and has a child with another woman, and yet he suffers no punishment and faces no sort of justice.

ii.              Mary lou tries to punish him by sleeping with his best friends, Sal. She then teases him and abandons him as well.

b.     Dean cannot afford to pay child support money, yet Camille takes him back

IV.            Kerouac shows that as long as you are interesting, you can keep loyalty

a.     Dean ditches Sal in Mexico, and still Sal looks upon him fondly

b.     Sal cheats on Marylou hundreds of times and yet she continues to love him.

Outline for Term Paper

1.  Discuss Kerouac's use of the passage of time in the novel.

Kerouac's notion of time seems to be that of an entity that is constantly moving and constantly taking other people with it.

I.  In the novel, Sal feels many different emotions concerning this idea. As he sees his friends growing smaller in the rear window of a car as he leaves them, he regrets not being able to be a part of their lives permanently. However, the life he seeks makes such ideas impossible to achieve. This is also the case in the memories that Sal and Dean continually share. They cannot conquer the past, so they continually try to relive it with new memories.

II. Even though Sal has promised to marry and settle down with his new fiance, he cannot do so once Dean magically appears at his doorstep. As soon as Dean tempts him to, again, get on the road and travel, Sal has no other choice but to do as he says and follow Dean across the nation just like before.

III. The idea behind the never ending road is to be constantly moving from one point to another. The possibility of stopping in one spot and living there forever is unfathomable to Sal and Dean because the road is also a form of escape from their pasts, or better known as mistakes. Time, therefore, has no real meaning to Sal and Dean once they're on the road traveling from one spot to another. It actually does not even matter where they travel too only that they continue to move and just never stay in one area for too long. 

Comment to Luis

I agree with your thesis and I know we've talked about this before in group discussions about how Neal is like the Gatsby to Jack. I think another point that you should add in their or mention is how Jack always had a lack of personality and let Neal and his friends kind of mold him into whatever they pleased. Jack was just always so willing to do whatever Neal wanted out of some form of envy. Otherwise, your other points are clear and I'm sure that once you've written out your full paragraphs, they'll offer great support to your thesis.

Response to Emily

I was also debating very strongly on whether to write about a very similar topic. The mistreatment of women is explicit all throughout the book and I feel like you have very strong options to base your paper on because Dean is just a huge screw up with women. I also felt like Sal absorbed some of Dean's bad manners with women because he went from having a wife to sweet talking girls and promising them the world and leaving them the next morning.

Thesis and Outline

Sal is lost and therefore sees little meaning and sense in life, and so he is in search of someone like Dean who is more lost than himself to re-connect to his grounds and realize how much true meaning his life truly has.

I.  Sal has a good stable life and yet is bored with it and sees no meaning in his writing and so he goes on the adventure with Dean.
II.  Dean has no sense of direction in life and just bounces from one place to another to try to squeeze some enjoyment from whatever he does, and Sal likes that kind of life for a while.
III. Dean ruins all their plans to go to Italy, pretty much screws Camille and the new girl over, and although Sal is the only person that has stuck by his side the whole time while everyone else left him, Dean leaves Sal really sick in Mexico.
IV. Sal starts realizing that Dean is somewhat of a scumbag and that his personality gets old and at one point or another, he must grow up and realize he needs the stable life he once had and threw out.

Response to Anike

I really like your thesis. In my opinion I think there are tons of evidence that support your thesis. Which I think will make your term paper very easy to write. I think that the idea about discussion how the kind of people that Sal and Dean were has a lot to do with the generation that they lived it. I think that the way that they lived to glorified a lot more then, then it is now. I really have nothing bad to say, you did a really good job!

Thesis

 Jack Kerouac seems to continually talk about through the narration of life on the road as something better and more excited then a stable lifestyle. He uses Dean and Sal as the vessels to exult the party lifestyle that they live during this period of their life. The final thesis that I choose was: Jack Kerouac emphasis the unstable and abusive relationships between Sal’s and Dean and their respective female partners to glorify the irresponsible lifestyle of the “road”.

1.     The relationship between Sal and Terry – The reasons why he left and it removed his sense of responsibility as both a father figure and a husband to live more “independently”

2.     The relationship between Marylou and Dean– Talking about the definition of abusive relationships both emotionally and physical, how it applies, and the kind of toxic behave that brings two people who are obviously ill suited for each other back together. Glorifies the passion and over sexualize type of relationship that comes with the “on the road” life style

3.     The relationship between Dean and Camille – How commitment, even with the inclusive of a daughter, still evades Dean grasp. The ability to leave a woman who has your first born daughter to live a life of drugs and alcohol. Also the inability to support his child or ex-wife financially.

4.     The relationship between Dean and Inez – Showing that no matter how much Dean screws up, he is still capable of be with many woman intimately, even though they know all of the bad things that he has done. Also the use of marry to secure an abusive relationship.     

Response to Mona

Mona, I agree with your thesis and points. Our interpretations of the book are similar and I think there is a lot of material we can cover. Choosing to base our paper on the Beat Generation will provide an opportunity to do interesting research on their ideals.
The only criticism I can make is on point four. I don't know if Jack's inability to have a personality has to do with social conformity or the Beat Generation's message. I would take that one out and stick with the other points about Neal. The rest of your points are strong and can be supported well.

Thesis and arguments

The characters of On the Road epitomize what it means to be a member of the Beat Generation. Throughout the novel, the main characters fight against conformity and partake in wild, irrational activities that push society's boundaries.

I. Rejection of Conformity.

II. Defiance of authority and social constructs.

III. Experimentation with drugs, sex, and alcohol.

IV. The need to keep moving and search for meaning-"It".

V. The pursuit of clarity and freedom. 

Primary outline

This book portrays The Beat Generation and it inability to comply with society's standards.

I. Jack leaves his home for work related purposes but instead ends up traveling and with Neal and being irresponsible. Society would have rather wanted for him to stay with his work ethic, get his job done and continue on with his responsibilities.

II. Neal has a lack of social standing and does whatever he wants whenever he wants.

III. Neal has no moral code. He puts himself first and only thinks of his needs and not the feelings of others.

IIII. Jack has no sense of self and allows others to mold him to their desires. He just goes with whatever others are doing and is a follower.

V. Drugs, alcohol, sex. Anti-conservative.

Basically just a bunch of immature people doing whatever they please.

(I wrote more than 4 points because I didn't know which were better.)