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