Term Paper Final Draft

Jonathan Chow

5/4/14

Period 1

Kerouac's notion of time seems to be that of an entity that is constantly moving and constantly taking others with it. During the novel, Sal feels many different emotions concerning this reality. As he sees his friends growing smaller in the rear window of a car as he leaves them, he laments not being able to be a part of their lives permanently. Yet, the madness he seeks makes such permanence is 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 by replenishing it with new memories as they travel once again across the country.

Time, throughout the novel, seems to not exist, for the most part, within the world that Sal and Dean share. This lifestyle was originally introduced by Dean to Sal since Dean convinced Sal to take his first steps towards traveling along this never-ending trip which includes going back and forth across the country. Though, in reality, these trips do take time and take up huge sections of Sal’s life, this does not prevent Sal from retaking these trips as if to escape from the boring aspects of life. Dean, throughout the novel, revisits Sal and convinces him each time to take some trip cross-country with him. Sal, as usual, agrees to take these trips as if he were addicted to doing so. In retrospect however, Sal takes these trips so he may forget the past and replace it with new memories from this trip. Since Sal needs to do this over and over again, he continuously does so with the help of Dean, his soul mate who accompanies Sal on most of these journeys and who, like Sal, suffers from the same addiction of replenishing memories with new ones. This addiction that both characters share seems to play along with this reoccurring theme of “madness” and how it correlates with those who move the fastest. “In Oakland I had a beer among the bums of a saloon with a wagon wheel in front of it, and I was on the road again. I walked clear across Oakland to get on the Fresno road. Two rides took me to Bakersfield, four hundred miles south. The first was the mad one, with a burly blond kid in a souped- up rod. "See that toe?" he said as he gunned the heap to eighty and passed everybody on the road. "Look at it." It was swathed in bandages. "I just had it amputated this morning. The bastards wanted me to stay in the hospital. I packed my bag and left. What’s a toe?" Yes, indeed, I said to myself, look out now, and I hung on. You never saw a driving fool like that. He made Tracy in no time.” (I.12.2 Kerouac) In this passage, it is obvious that Sal understands the madness that lives within the racing of time but fails to do anything about it. With this information, we can assume that Sal is either to afraid to take on the madness or that he is so consumed with the addiction that he is unfit to fight against the power that has now driven him mad which originated within Dean and causes him to feel that it is necessary for him to replenish his mind with new memories.  

Since it now has been proven that there exists some form of madness within Dean and Sal, “the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars”, we can move onto the idea that there seems to be a desperate attempt by both to appease this sickness that gnaws at them. The solution, though not permanent, is their constant push to moving forward. Though, we can recognize that it does not get rid of the illness entirely it seems to be the temporary antidote for these two characters:  

“Sal, we gotta go and never stop going 'till we get there.'
'Where we going, man?'
'I don't know but we gotta go.” (Kerouac)

The road is there escape from life. As all humans do, we age and fall victim to the idea of “responsibility”.  However, there are those who are afraid of falling in line and accepting their fate as normal adults and try anything to leave this notion of normality behind. Also, because these kinds of people are a minority of society, the loneliness causes them to go insane since they have very few others to speak with about their thoughts. Such people include Sal and Dean who were fortunate enough to find each other and were able to find the mystical power of healing which lies within the road. That is why both of these characters are so attracted to the road; it allows them to escape the responsibilities that tie them down to a life of boredom and inaction. Also, with the increasing number of responsibilities, the amount held by an individual can help determine how old that individual is. The more chores, the older the person is. Therefore, as rational human beings, Sal and Dean wish to remain young as long as possible and, on the road, they can remain as young as they wish since time has no meaning while they are traveling back and forth across the nation. “And for just a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy that I always wanted to reach, which was the complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm, and the sensation of death kicking at my heels to move on, with a phantom dogging its own heels, and myself hurrying to a plank where all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of uncreated emptiness, the potent and inconceivable radiancies shining in bright Mind Essence, innumerable lotuslands falling open in the magic mothswarm of heaven. I could hear an indescribable seething roar which wasn't in my ear but everywhere and had nothing to do with sounds. I realized that I had died and been reborn numberless times but just didn't remember especially because the transitions from life to death and back to life are so ghostly easy, a magical action for naught, like falling asleep and waking up again a million times, the utter casualness and deep ignorance of it. I realized it was only because of the stability of the intrinsic Mind that these ripples of birth and death took place, like the action of the wind on a sheet of pure, serene, mirror-like water. I felt sweet, swinging bliss, like a big shot of heroin in the mainline vein; like a gulp of wine late in the afternoon and it makes you shudder; my feet tingled. I thought I was going to die the very next moment. But I didn't die...” (Kerouac).

 Since we understand the notion that Sal and Dean are attempting to escape life, we begin to analyze what is it about life that seems to be so unattractive to these two. Evidently, as any human would, Sal and Dean seem to be running from something that must have hurt them in the past. Such a thing could be classified as an event, situation, or problem that they both faced and could not overcome and, in the end, they were probably outdone by the something that was causing them grief and despair. Individually, the reader knows that Sal has faced a nasty divorce which has left him scarred, so scarred that he was too afraid to ever settle down again due to his fear of heart break. On the topic of Dean’s past, it is not as clear as to what causes Dean to hate the idea of settling down as much as Sal but there are several clues that help shed some light for the reader. It is not as obvious for the reader however to piece together the reasons as to why Dean would be terrified at settling down in one spot. There are several clues though, that help identify the problem that Dean sees with relating to time during a journey; Dean has his own philosophy behind the concept of time: “They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get there — and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see. But they need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won't be at peace until they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flits by them and they know it and that too worries them no end.” When one worries about time during their pilgrimage, they seem to forget what really matters which is for them to enjoy the trip itself and not stress themselves out about the tiniest things. However, if you already know that your pilgrimage is to come to an end, then you must build a schedule around that time interval in order to do everything you want to do within those limits. However, if you continue to run along this road without thinking of ending, then you can forget about the stressful factors that come with time and you can do everything that you wanted to do without feeling the pain of worry.  

At the end of our analysis of the madness that lies within the minds of our two main characters, we realize that what Sal and Dean see in the road is not as crazy as we originally thought it to be. At first, it seemed that the road was only a means to escape responsibility and to free oneself from ever having to take charge of one’s own destiny. However, now it is clearer that the road is a means to bypass the rules of time and allow for a more livable lifestyle; a life without fear of ever running out time to do the things one always wished to do. Since, we understand that there is some merit in the lifestyle Sal and Dean have decided to worship, it is acceptable for us to recognize this philosophy as an acceptable way of improving the lives of others who seemed to be too preoccupied with scheduling out one’s own life to fit the narrow restrains that come with the concept of time. “I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo."So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” This quote by J.R.R. Tolkien in his novel The Fellowship of the Ring provides clearer insight on what Kerouac is trying to tell the reader with the idea of the road when introduced to Sal and Dean; the idea of life is not to wish for something specific to happen to you but, to make what you wish to happen to you a reality by forgetting about the conventional limitations that come with time and continue searching on the road for the thing you crave most without worrying of what you will actually find.

Work Cited

-        "On the Road." - Wikiquote. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2014. <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/On_the_Road>.

-        "On the Road Quotes." by Jack Kerouac. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2014. <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1701188-on-the-road>.

-        Shmoop Editorial Team. "On the Road Quotes." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 4 May 2014. <http://www.shmoop.com/on-the-road/quotes.html>.

Final Term Paper

When On the Road was published in 1957, it brought about a cultural paradigm shift that glamorized freedom, youth, and experimentation. In his novel, Jack Kerouac takes the reader on a journey through the adventures he has shared with the legendary Beat authors Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. With stream-of-consciousness writing and philosophical digressions, Kerouac shows his readers what it means to be Beat.   Throughout the novel, the main characters fight against conformity and partake in wild, irrational activities that push society's boundaries. Dean, who represents Cassady, shows continual rebellion against the idea of settling down and dedicating to a family. This mindset was shared by many of his fellow Beat authors, and was notably a backlash against the conformist fifties mentality of the nuclear family. Dean and Ed Dunkel (Al Hinkle) often abandon their wives to instead keep moving along the West. Their adventures include excessive drinking, sex, and drugs. Rather than looking for a steady job to be able to settle down and support a family, Dean, Ed, Sal (Jack Kerouac), and Remi (Henri Cru) prefer to steal when they can and are perfectly content to barely scrape by. This backlash can be attributed to the inevitable pendulum swing that often occurs from one generation to another. Emerging from a generation that praised a quiet and stable suburban lifestyle, the Beat Generation swung in the other direction and pursued a wild lifestyle free from any responsibilities. In On the Road, however, their actions often leave behind a trail of damaged wives and mothers who cannot provide for their children.
  Kerouac alludes to this aftermath in On the Road. Since Dean cannot stand the idea of creating a stable family unit and conforming to society’s expectations, the women he leaves behind endure a great deal of suffering. Kerouac describes Camille’s (Carolyn Cassady’s) desperation every time Dean decides to leave for another trip on the road. She is often crying hysterically upstairs, brutally angry and afraid. Dean views her as an annoyance and a chore; from society’s point of view he is irresponsible, irrational, and deeply selfish. Sal, however, admires these qualities as those of a free spirit seeking true understanding of the world around him.
As the novel goes on, Kerouac describes an alliance that has been formed between the women on the other side of the traveling gang. Inez (Diana Hansen) frequently speaks to Camille about her problems. The desperation of these individual women rises above any hopes for a monogamous relationship and nuclear family.   In 1990, Carolyn Cassady published her memoir Off the Road: Twenty Years with Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg, which describes Neal and Jack’s adventures from the female perspective. In the first chapter, she writes, “Raised in fear and reverence for the prevailing social code of the Thirties and having led a sheltered, restricted, existence, I was amazed... that there were men who dared to live like the characters in my books and movies.” (Cassady 1). This line captures the initial charisma and wonder that Dean often exudes. It also touches upon the Beat Generation’s refusal to conform. Carolyn Cassady’s perspective sheds light on how Dean was pushing boundaries, and also classifies what made him so attractive to Sal.
  The members of the Beat Generation were also known press society’s limits beyond a blatant rejection of conformity. In On the Road, Dean and his gang often purposely defy and challenge all forms of authority. Dean makes it around the West by stealing cars and gas whenever possible. Kerouac alludes to several of Dean’s encounters with the law, and first refers to him as “a young jailkid shrouded in mystery” (Kerouac 1). Not surprisingly, when Sal and Remi get jobs as guards, they spend the night partying with the noise-makers and attempting to steal food. Although Sal is not initially sure about their actions, Remi assures him that “President Truman said... We must cut down on the cost of living” (64). Sal often plays the role of an outside admirer in the novel; he idolizes Dean and his lifestyle but is not yet ready to take it on for himself. The gang’s continual challenging of authority brings them further away from the societal ‘norm’, and is yet another reason why they shocked the generation.
  The contents of On the Road caused a great deal of controversy. Like its literary counterpart Howl by Allen Ginsberg, On the Road had references to drugs, alcohol, and sex that were questioned by society. Howl was tried in court for obscenity and nearly faced censorship; with the help of these two literary works, the Beat lifestyle was taking the world by storm. Howl, which was largely inspired by Kerouac’s On the Road, begins with the line “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by/ madness, starving hysterical naked” (Ginsberg 1). Arguably, the ‘madness’ Ginsberg refers to as having destroyed the best minds of his generation is the same ‘madness’ Kerouac uses to classify Neal Cassady and the gang. Ginsberg also mentions Denver, where Dean and Sal often meet up in On the Road. Ginsberg writes, “who journeyed to Denver... who/ came back to Denver & waited in vain... who/ finally went away to find out the/ Time, & now Denver is lonesome for her heroes,” (17). Once one has become familiar with the lifestyle portrayed in On the Road, one can also understand Howl with far more clarity. For this reason, On the Road gives a valuable backdrop to the classic Beat novels.
  On the Road, like Howl, also provides uncensored insight into the lives of the Beat Generation. As Dean and Mary Lou’s relationship grows bland, Dean asks Sal to have sex with her in order to see how she is with another man. What ensues is a brutally awkward situation that leaves Sal and Mary Lou feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable. Dean, as usual, does not give the experience much thought. This is yet another example of his tendency to objectify the women in his life. Throughout the novel there is abundant consumption of alcohol and drugs. Sal describes these parties as a temporary escape that always leads to a melancholy feeling in the morning. He also writes that he admires Dean’s quest to keep moving and search for “IT”, his ever-elusive conclusion about the world.
Sal writes that Dean seeks this clarity in music, drinking, and sex. When listening to a live Jazz musician whom he calls ‘God’, Dean sweats profusely and shakes with passion. He explains to Sal that the man in front of them has grasped the meaning of “IT”. Dean admires ‘God’ for having reached a spiritual nirvana, and continually tries to explain to Sal what he means by his search for “IT”.  Dean tells Sal, “‘...the point being that we know what IT is and we know TIME and we know that everything is really FINE.’” (Kerouac 197). The idea of understanding the world and placing faith in chaos brings comfort to Dean; however, it also makes him forget his worldly concerns and logic.   When traveling with Sal, Dean never changes the bandage on his injured hand. Sal describes the bandage as growing dirty and floppy. He writes, “By now Dean’s thumb bandage was almost as black as coal and all unrolled” (231). Dean’s lack of concern for his own injury represents his detachment from his own well-being. He spends all his energy and thought chasing the invisible “IT”. As Ginsberg wrote in Howl, the madness in Dean is slowly destroying him. In his pursuit of clarity, Dean seeks true freedom from societal constraints. He soon learns, however, that the constructs of society have great power over the individual.
  Throughout On the Road, Kerouac hints at the idea of disappearance. The characters in On the Road often suffer from a great deal of depression when they are alone. Ed Dunkel tells Sal that he once felt like a ghost wandering Times Square. Dean, Sal, and Carlo all attempt to grasp and quantify their significance in some way. Wandering Times Square, where one is often flooded by a sea of people, it is not difficult to feel small. Ed is afraid to live in obscurity; later on, Sal expresses a similar point of view after having a falling out with Dean. The characters seek each other's company, perhaps, to feel less alone. They strive to be different, unique, and break boundaries precisely because they cannot stand the idea of fading away quietly. When looking at photographs of him and the gang, Sal writes “I realized these were all the snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived a smooth, well-ordered, stabilized-within-the-photo lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life, never dreaming the raggedy madness and... the senseless nightmare road.” (241). On the Road makes sure that their lives and experiences will never be forgotten, nor smoothed over by the passage of time.
  Dean Moriarty and his gang are always moving because they seek to attain what society will never allow them: absolute freedom. Life on the road gives the crew an escape from responsibilities, chores, and monotonous work. They attempt to live their lives to the fullest by doing whatever they want, whenever they want. However, the the book also reveals that ultimately, the societal machine has a great deal of power over man. Throughout On the Road, Dean Moriarty is regarded as a loser and a coward by others; he makes a mess of his own life and loses his sense of direction. Towards the end of the book, although it is against Dean's nature, he must find a way to play by the rules to be able to support himself and the women he has brought into his life. At the end he is forced to take mediocre jobs and a dull life over a life of excitement on the road. His free spirit, however, still stays alive. Sal admires Dean for his quest for freedom, but he also recognizes the power of society itself.
  In their quest to find “It”, Dean and Sal sink into a maddening haze of drugs and alcohol. Sal describes drinking “sixty glasses of beer” (233) and later retiring to the toilet and going to sleep. He writes that he is “embryonically convoluted among the rubbishes of my life, his life, and the life of everybody concerned and not concerned.”(233). At this point in the novel, Sal has become deeply mixed into Dean’s madness and unrelenting quest. He has reached a level of numbness and carelessness that he can no longer escape. The melancholy feeling he earlier described as coming the morning after a party has now begun to set in permanently. Sal writes, “What difference does it make after all?- anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what’s heaven? what’s earth? All in the mind.” (233). Sal often fears that there is no true understanding to be reached; that perhaps the world itself, just like heaven, is only in the mind. However, when Sal does not find "It" across America, he realizes he has found “It” in Dean. He writes that Dean “was BEAT- the root, the soul of Beatific” (184). The novel ends with Sal recognizing that the idea Dean represents is beautiful and clear: the search for clarity and freedom.
Word Count: 1,967

Final Draft Term Paper

On the Road is a novel that expresses the thrill of taking that unknown path and the road not taken to see where it gets you in life. We sometimes get complacent with our lives and start to wonder what could have been if things had been done differently, and so we take two steps back to see if we can take three forward, but in cases, failure is inevitable and the receding steps don’t stop. That is why we try to change things and meet different people. We feel lost and anonymous in the big crowd and so we search for that special someone that makes us feel important and alive again. In other words, we look for someone who feels even more lost, because as human nature calls, we are always the most important person in our life, and so feeling better than the rest is always a priority.

In this particular case, the main character Sal Paradise is stuck in a life stage where he has reached his limit and his life has steadied off, making it repetitive and dull to him. Sal is married and has a writing career in front of him, but as he stops and ponders on what his life has come to he decided this is not what he wants and thus decides to throw it all away and start fresh. Sal has a problem because he becomes complacent with the life that people dream about. People grow up and do everything in order to finally settle down with the person they love and do what they love, but Sal resents his choice to let his life die down and wants to take action to give his youth another shot at the adventurous and rebellious life, and Dean Moriarity was the perfect person to make that happen.

When Sal met Dean it was like destiny punching him in the face. Sal saw this reckless, crazy, poor womanizer and saw the perfect opportunity to leave his old life behind and start a new life of party and uncertainty. Dean was everything Sal wanted to be. Spontaneous, charming, happy with his life, careless of what will be to come the next day. Sal is lost and vulnerable in this moment. He is vulnerable to be deceived by his own conscience that would otherwise know that this is a horribly risky decision, but his soul is in such a desperate search for that other, worst and more lost soul, that he decides to start chasing Dean. By choosing to follow this ticking time bomb of a man Sal has also decided to leave behind his wife and put his writing career on pause, but hoping to run into some inspiration on this unforeseen journey.

After choosing to leave his wife and put his career on pause, Sal ventures off to follow Dean across the country to see what he would do next. Sal ends up following Dean to Denver, and although Dean is not there a long time, Sal still enjoys his time there. Dean always finds a way to get lost in one place and, with very little money or resources, is able to carry on his nomadic lifestyle from one city to the next. This makes it very hard for Sal to follow him, and so sometimes Sal is stuck with Dean’s entourage, one may say. This entourage involves characters such as Carlo Marx, who Sal absolutely falls in love with because of his vivid personality and his desire to party and drink and meet women, which is just what Sal is looking for to find his new personality, or the personality he thought he never had which may just be lost within.  This is another reason why Sal follows Dean. Dean has met interesting people in his life that compliment his way of life. These people are somewhat mad, just like Dean, and can even be categorized as other lost souls as they party and drink their way through life. All of Dean’s friends, the other hitch-hikers, and even all of Sal’s old friends have something in common when it comes to this journey. They all have the ability to show Sal something new, something unknown to the young writer who is looking for inspiration to find his true meaning and go back home content with his discovery and finally start writing again with the passion he started with.

Sal realizes he is not always in Dean’s presence, but it is as if Dean had a pre-made path for Sal to go on. This path has twists and loops which Dean has shortcuts to and so he can avoid them and keep going with his life, but for Sal all these unexpected stops and people are new pieces to the puzzle of his life. Each person has something new to bring to the table. Whether it is partying, women, a job, or even being someone who Sal does not want to associate with any longer after the first encounter. Every person is a different experience, a different acquisition to Sal’s soul search so Sal can pick and choose which qualities he enjoys seeing in others so he can mold his personality to fit that and become the best person he believes he could be. In a way this is bad because Sal is not being true to himself and doing everything he wants to do, but he conforms to the group ideal, and since he likes this group, he changes himself to adapt to their lifestyle and he keeps following Dean to meet new pieces to his soul puzzle. 

As Sal carries on with his nomadic adventure of following Dean, he starts realizing that Dean is not that loved character he thought. Dean started off being liked by everyone because he was so fun and easy going and he did not worry about the little things. The problem is, in the end, it is the little things that matter. Towards the end of their journey, Sal is brought into these sort of Anti-Dean conversations in which everyone has something bad to say about Dean or they have a list of complaints about him that they want to get off their chest. Mary Lou is a good example because out of everyone, she would be the one people thought would stay by Dean’s side, but even she loses interest in his unsettled life, as well as the fact that she is somewhat of a nymphomaniac and puts her physical desires before her emotional ones and even considers leaving Dean for Sal at one point. Another example is when Galatea and Camille and everyone else confront Sal and tell him that Dean is no good for him, and anyone who sticks around Dean and is loyal to him gets hurt, because Dean is incapable of prioritizing correctly and he is selfish with what he wants because he does not care who he throws under a bus to get it. It gets complicated for Sal though because he has a passion for Dean. He enjoys being with Dean and living like him. This is a problem because Sal starts to take Deans personality qualities and becomes someone people won’t like in the future because, like Dean, they’ll get tired of his selfishness and inability to put others before himself when necessary. The treatment of women has been touched on before, but it can be a reoccurring example because Sal learns to be this player with the women from his observational learning with Dean in which Sal sees it works, Dean gets women, so if he does the same then he will get women as well. In the end, Dean’s old friends leave him and it becomes Sal and Dean against the world. This is somewhat of a good thing for Sal because he finally has the quality alone time with Dean he has been yearning for since the beginning and now, instead of following him around, they make plans together and even decide to go Italy. That beautiful plan for their future is of course destroyed by Dean being careless again and wasting all his money and coming up with another scheme to go to Mexico. This is an eye opening trip for Sal because on this journey is where he finally realizes how much of a selfish person Dean really is. After Sal gets Dean out of trouble by saying he’s his “brother”, Sal is proud to be able to say that, and realizes he loves Dean in a brotherly way. It is not until later though that Dean leaves Sal in Mexico incredibly sick so he can go and chase a girl back to the states, and what is sad is that even though Sal sees the true carelessly evil nature in Dean, he can’t help but want to stay by his side.

The adventure keeps going and its repetitiveness is evident to Sal, who at this point is wondering why he is even still chasing this lunatic.  He has become basically homeless and poor, has lost any significant love of any woman that really meant anything to him, and is taking life day by day with exasperation and tiredness of all the complications that he has faced. Sal appears to be content and complacent with his situation because he keeps lying to himself. He keeps telling himself this is what he wants out of life and Dean is who he wants to idolize and become like. Sal uses cognitive dissonance thoughts to tell himself that this life experience has been worth it. He tells himself that the lost soul inside of him is growing stronger with the unexpected journeys, the sleeping around with strange woman to fill that void, both physical and emotional, that men must feel to be happy, and the meeting of new people, some whom he would be much better off with than Dean but because Dean is so nomadic has barely any chances to see them. It is painful to see this because it shows how lost Sal really is. He wants to be someone he is not and shouldn’t be because he thinks this lifestyle is working for Dean, when in reality, Dean’s life is torn into pieces.

            The phrase “the grass is always greener on the other side” applies perfectly to Sal’s view on life because he is never fully satisfied with what he has, and spends time away from Dean only to go back to him and embark in another cross country trip with no true destination. The tables even turn though, and this is where we can see Dean’s desperation. There is a point where Sal goes back to New York and is about to marry a girl, but as always, Dean shows up and causes trouble, and even talks Sal into thinking that they should swing girlfriends, which ends the relationship Sal had with this girl obviously. The problem with Sal is that he does not realize how much more lost Dean is than him, and so he is letting Dean bring him down with him. The trip to Mexico is the last straw for Sal because he understands now how messed up Dean’s life really is, and even though Dean screws him over and leaves him to nearly die in a foreign country, Sal still sees him as his brother and he feels sympathy for him because he now gets the bigger picture of why he did everything he did. His ability to see Dean’s lost soul helps him feel better about himself and understand that his life was never the train wreck he thought it was.

            In the end, Sal misses what he once had and puts an end to this crisis stage in his life because he feels more in contact with himself after seeing how destroyed Dean really was. Dean is missing someone to truly love, he is missing enjoyment of the little things in life, and he is missing the true and basic understanding of what it is to live life to the fullest. Sal doesn’t resent Dean for this at all though, and even sticks to the idea that Dean is his brother.

 Word Count: 2036

Last Part

This amplifies the characteristics of people from the Beat Generation because they cared only for what satisfied them and their desires; whether it be friends, sex from multiple partners, or abuse of drugs which are attained by theft if needed be.

At this point, Sal feels as though he has lost his sense of direction and purpose and thinks "what I accomplished by coming to Frisco I don't know,” so he takes a bus back to New York. Sal is almost like a buffer between the Beat Generation and the elder. He has the mindset of the right handers yet the desires of the Beat. He knows he should maintain responsibility but at the same time, he wants to roam wild; but as Dean persists in taking him on these trips, he loses touch with anything sensible within him, turning him into a child of the “Beat” and taking away his conformity.

With the continuation of the story, free association writing breeds meaningful discourse and spiritual reflection as Dean communicates with those around him. Sal, who has been characterized as an outsider, finds utter confusion in these thought patterns yet admires the freedom of Dean’s mad mind. These speech patterns presented by Dean convey the free mentality and blissful thinking which the Beat generation aspired to achieve. By simply sitting there and allowing the words that run through their mind to fall off their lips, they are, in a crazed way, breaking the chains of strict conformity, and while seeming insane to others, are allowing their minds to roam in ways that older generations would have seen as unacceptable behavior. Of course, the use of psychotics or drug related substances aided in their ability to communicate in such mad and bizarre ways.

After some time of being away from Dean, Sal gets lonesome and depressed and can’t help but contact Dean for one more round of kicks. The two plan to go to Mexico City with others and this trip embodies everything the righters despise. Prostitutes, cannabis, liquor, partying, etc., are all abundant in Mexico City but was puts each Dean and Sal in their place is when Sal realizes that Dean was willing to give up any sense of a family for the wildness of “the road.” Dean is the extreme example of a “Beat” child. He is careless, free-spirited, doesn’t let anything tie him down, will not conform to what others wants, loves drugs, sex, and partying. He is the spirit of “The Beat” and what attracts people like Sal, Marylou, and Ed to join his mad ways. Although the idea of non-conformity and constant partying sounds excited, Dean didn’t end up too well in the end. He received divorce papers in New Mexico, went back to New York to marry Inez and then ended up leaving her and returning to Camille. Due to all the craziness he has put himself through and the constant movement he has done throughout the years, he is incapable of settling down and will find it difficult to stay in one place. When he tries to return to Sal, who has already established a life with a girl named Laura, he is left behind as Sal, Laura, and Remi Boncoeur drive to the Opera House. Sal had to say goodbye to his alter ego, although he never forgot him and Dean had to realize that his “Beat” ideals didn’t set him up in a good place.

                 

The Final Term Paper

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. 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”.

The first establish characteristic of Jack Kerouac’s glorified idea of the “road” lifestyle is a person who is not too attached to anyone or anything because he/she is always on the move. Sal and Dean exemplify this characteristic because they are able to easily detach themselves from people or situations to continue their journey on the road. Sal Paradise, the protagonist, is a recently divorce man living in New Jersey with his aunt. He has no stable job or family that would hold him to down in anyplace. His life had grown stagnate and routine, and he longed for the sort of adventure that would inspire his writing and reinvigorate his life. This desire for inspiration and adventure leads him to venture out into the American West. All these traits makes Sal the perfect candidate for the “road” lifestyle. On his travels Sal proves that he is capable of escaping relationships. Sal meets a Mexican girl named Terry, and they begin traveling together. Soon the two of them settle down for a while in little town in California called Sabinal with Terry family and her son. He and the son, Johnny, hit it off, and Sal begins to be a father figure to the boy. Sal gets a job, and had to support his new “family” by picking cotton. At first he enjoyed family life. Then the “road” calls for him again, and he starts to have the urge to leave. Sal said “I could feel the pull of my own life calling me back” (pg.98, Jack Kerouac). He imagined the relationship to be a break from his actual life and he never intended to keep it.  He no longer enjoyed the responsible of taking care of a Terry and her son. So as quickly as the urge to go to New York erupted inside of him, he was just as quickly abandoning Terry and her baby. Sal continues on without regret, and almost immediately begins a new relationship with a new girl. Sal behavior was probably influence by his friends, and the series of mischievous acts they played on women. They would seduce them, use them, and then discard them when they were no longer of use to them. For example, one of Sal friends, Ed Dunkel, was running low on money. He met a woman who is considerable wealthier then he was, and out of convenience; he married her so he could continue on his road trip across the country. When she stopped funding the trip, he ditched her in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Dean, Sal’s friend and idol, was constantly traveling. He would settle in a town or city until he no longer found pleasure in the places he was staying. He treated the woman that he was with similarly. He would also abandon woman as soon as they were no longer “fun” to be with. It is predicable that once Sal Paradise started hanging out with people who personified the “road” lifestyle, he would begin to act similarly.           

The second characteristic of the “road” lifestyle is the ability to shirk responsibility without consequence. The best part about doing something capricious and immoral is not getting caught afterward. The allure of doing something bad and not getting caught is the one of the primary factor for people to continue engaging in nefarious activities. To glorify this nomadic lifestyle, Jack Kerouac made Dean Moriarty untouchable. His bad deeds came almost explicitly without consequence.  Dean Moriarty was the master of irresponsibility and immaturity, and Sal was slowly influences by the action of Dean towards all of the women in his life. Marriage is, of course, an extraordinary commitment. It requires the understanding, by both parties, of monogamy and care, both fiscally and emotionally. Dean Moriarty in the beginning of the novel had a beautiful wife named Mary Lou. She was the envy of all of Dean’s friends, and she was madly in love with him. Later on in the novel, Dean decided to cheat on Mary Lou with a girl named Camille. He kept them both in the same hotel, in different room. Dean would travel from one room to the other, sleeping with each girl and then leaving immediately after to see the other. Not only did Dean go on for several months without getting caught, but also his friends actually condemned him for it. They idolized his inappropriate and hurtful behavior toward women. They talked about it in great detail, and to continue the ridiculous trend of glorifying the emotional abuse of women, they actually philosophized about it together. Dean and Carlo Marx actually decided while discussing it one night that cheating on both the women was the right thing to do. Then, when Dean was finally caught cheating, both Camille and Mary Lou actually degraded themselves and forgave him. A second example of Dean incredibly unpunished irresponsibility was the abandonment of his daughter and wife. Camille, after dating Dean for a while, got pregnant out of wedlock. Dean married her, and stayed with her during the entire length of her pregnancy. Then a few months after his daughter was born, he left. He realized that he was bored of married life, and that he missed his ex-wife, Mary Lou. So Dean hitchhiked, and made his way back to Mary Lou, and even though she knew that he abandon both his wife and child, she took him back. He left Camille without a penny, and he was never punished for it. Then, Dean came crawling back to Camille after Mary Lou came to her senses, and realized that she could never truly have all of Dean,  and she decided to leave him. Camille then took Dean back after he cheated on her, and abandoned her and her child. Jack Kerouac made the female character moral weak, to make the male character seem superior. Also by making the female character’s weak, it made it easy for Dean and Sal to get away with their actions, because they knew that no matter what they do, the females feel that they “need” them, so they would take them back.          

Similar to the first characteristic of the road lifestyle, the third characteristic is the ability to shirk off irresponsibility without consequence. Sal, Dean, and the rest of their misfit gang of nomads and vagabonds, take absolutely no responsibility for anything that they do on the road. This immaturity and irresponsibility extends to their relationships with women, their friendships with each other, and their regular everyday fiscal responsibilities.  Dean, as mention in the previous paragraphs, has a tendency to be incapable of commit. Dean gets his girlfriend, Camille, pregnant.  Dean knew that the implications of fatherhood were emotional and fiscal commitment to his child and the child’s mother. This frightened Dean, but instead of facing it head on like a real man should and would, he run away. He abandoned his pregnant girlfriend and their child to continue on living a free spirited lifestyle. Even though, he was suppose to pay child support, he never kept a steady job or even attempted to pay the bills. Yet Camille made no effort to force him to pay the money, and seemly let him go scot-free. Kerouac proving the point through Dean, that men can easily and without consequence, shirk their responsibility, while females are stuck burying the burdens of their mutual mistakes. During this period of time, Dean ran off to find Mary Lou, his first wife. He traveled on the road with her for several months, under the pretense that once they return to Camille the relationship would be over. Mary Lou was so desperately in love with Dean that she did not care that he was using her as a mechanism to avoid irresponsibility. Then when Dean returned Camille, she took Dean back into her life without question, even though it was clear that he had cheated on her all those months that he had been away. 

Sal has little money while he is on the road, and he has to attempt to make some income. He first gets a job as a waiter, which Dean put his neck out on the line for Sal to get, and Sal does not even show up to the first day of work. Then Sal becomes a policeman; he then gets drunk on the job and accidentally puts the American flag on upside down. This mistake gets both Sal and his friend fired from his job. Then Sal becomes a cotton picker, the work becomes too difficult for him and he feels inadequate and he quits. Even though his attempts to sustain his own income are weak at best, he is able to live off of his aunt and uncle’s hard earned wages. Sal, like Dean, is able to avoid irresponsibility and still live life to the fullest. Finally, both Sal and Dean, alienate friend from their inability to keep promises. Sal promises his friend, Remi, that he will be on best behavior when his Remi’s dad arrives. Instead of keeping to his promise, Sal gets drunk using Remi’s dad credit card and embarrasses Remi and his Dad inside a very reputable restaurant.  

            The final characteristic that is portrayed by the men in On The Road was the ability to command a strong loyalty with their friends and their lovers. The main example of this would be Dean. Dean’s irrationally, borderline psychotic, and unsympathetic behavior verges, at least to the readers, as nearly unlovable. Yet, Dean is not only loved but idolized by those around him. Dean is adored by almost every character that he meets, with very few exceptions.  Sal looks up to Dean and, in essences, his journey to the American West was not only inspired by Dean but also it was made in a effort to emulate him.  Jack Kerouac used Dean as someone who could do no wrong in terms of his friends, even when they were mad at him; it never really lasted very long. The first example of this is Dean relationship with Marylou. Dean starts off bring her to New York, when they are first married. Sal characterizes the relationship as rocky. They were constantly arguing with one and another. The most appropriate description of the relationship was emotionally abusive. Even though Mary Lou talked of leaving, it was clear that no matter how bad things got with Dean that she still was madly in love with him. The two of them went through a lot, and it was mostly him inflicted pain on her. In one passage of the novel, Dean describes to Sal hitting Mary Lou when he found out that she had moved on with another man. The emotionally abusive relationship turned physically abusive, yet it seems that neither Dean nor Sal are at all perturbed by Dean’s action. Sal continues to love Dean like a younger brother, and Dean continues to act without thought for others. Sal describes several times before this, that both Mary Lou and Dean would walk out of the car with bumps and bruise, and Sal never made a comment to Dean or judged. While I assumed that the unconditional loyalty and love extended only to the females in Deans life, like Mary Lou, Camille, and Inez, as it turns out, Sal was also quite guilty of overlooking Dean’s flaws for the sake of maintaining their friendship. The most prevalent example, is when Dean and Sal travel to Mexico together. Dean swears off women after Inez gives birth to his child, and Camille has already had two of them. They make it to Mexico and they go to a brothel, where Sal and Dean drink, do drugs, and have sex with multiple women. Sal does not realize that the water in Mexico is not as clean as the water in America. He contracts dysentery. Dean, unwilling to care for Sal while he is sick, abandons Sal in Mexico without friends or money to return home. Yet, Sal forgives him and continues to praise him until the end of the novel without fail.    

Word count: 2080

Bibliography

Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. New York: Viking, 1997. Print.