Term Paper

Cati Sesana

There are works that represent a social movement that is going on at the time they were written. On the Road by John Kerouac is an example of one of these works because it captures the soul of The Beat Generation. This was a cultural movement that occurred during the 1940s after the war and continued into the 1950s. The main character, Sal, goes across the country meeting new people and having amazing experiences everywhere he goes. He has no agenda or rules for his trip or his life. Kerouac personifies the whole beat generation and movement in Sal Paradise.

            The beat movement consisted of people who believed that society was corrupted and wanted to deviate from it. It started when the youth of the postwar era began rejecting the norms of previous generations. This was very radical at the time because before the movement people were very prude and proper. The Beats opposed this moralist way of living by bringing taboo topics like sexuality and jazz to light. They explored what society shunned. (http://www.online-literature.com/periods/beat.php). The Beats had other characteristics that made them stand out; they did not believe using marijuana and other drugs should be seen as a crime, thus it was not against their laws. Opposition to the military and police probably developed due to the war and its violence. They established a love for nature and animals that was not there before. Being in nature and away from society was their goal. (http://www.heureka.clara.net/art/beat-generation.htm). The Beat generation and society before the movement were complete opposites.

            Sal Paradise is a prototype for the beat generation because he has all the characteristics that defined the movement. Part one is when he gets a “bug” for wanting to move around. This is because he met Dean and is inspired by him. His new desire to be on the move represents the beginning of the Beat movement. Sal did not want to have an average life like the people around him and the new Beats did not want lives like their parents. They both reject the standard way to live so they can be free of responsibilities. Sal meets a bunch of people on his way to Denver. He hitchhikes and gets rides from people who are also constantly travelling. He gets a ride from some boys who are also doing a road trip and picking up hitchhikers on the way. He becomes friends with the people on the truck but they are gone as fast as they met. This shows how people would meet and it would seem as if they knew each other for years but they left no connection. They would move on and continue travelling without establishing an actual relationship. That way they would not be attached and settle somewhere.

            When Sal gets to San Francisco for the first time, he gets a job as a security guard. It is not a hard job but he does not keep it for a long time regardless. He clearly does not care about having a job because one night he gets drunk instead of doing his job. This represents how the Beat generation did not take work seriously. They did not want a serious job because that would cause them to stop moving around. Money did not interest them so they did not care for a job that paid well. The main reason for getting a job was to get money to survive and continue travelling. It was not something they enjoyed having.

After San Francisco, Sal meets Terry and falls for her. This is the first girl that Sal commits to for a little. They travel together for a while but he eventually leaves her to return to New York. This shows how the people of the Beat movement cared about love but to a certain extent. They would meet someone and start a serious relationship even though they barely knew each other. It would be a serious relationship but it would last for a short amount of time. Staying in a serious relationship did not interest them because that would possibly result in settling somewhere. Sal has thoughts about finding a girl but once he finds one he leaves her in order to move on. It is like a thirst that is never fully satisfied.

            The desire for travel sets in on Sal again after he spent a good amount of time in New York. This is the beginning of part two and it is cause by Dean’s visit. Dean is what inspires Sal to be on the road because Sal is inspired by the life that Dean has. While they are at a party, Dean tries convincing Sal to sleep with his girlfriend while they are at a party. This is an example of how the beat generation had no boundaries when it came to sexuality. They did not care about knowing a person before sleeping with them and there were no exclusive couples. This was very radical because the generation before them was extremely prude. Sex was never talked about because it was considered taboo. The Beat movement changed this way of thinking because sex was not something so secretive.

            Once they have been travelling for a while, Dean leaves Marylou for Camille in San Francisco. This is another example of how easily people would move without thinking twice. No planning went into it and he left unexpectedly. The people from Beat Generation did not plan things. They just played it by ear and hoped it went well. This also shows how uncommitted they were. Dean continues to go back and forth between the two women without a problem. This lack of commitment is because they refuse to stay in only one place. He goes from loving one to leaving her for the other. There is no remorse for playing them. The women obviously do not seem phased by this because they continue to take him back. It is not that they are stupid, they too are part of the beat generation and do not seem to care. They are as easygoing and uncommitted as he is. This shows how women were also part of the movement even if they stayed in one location like Camille did. Even though he had been traveling with Sal and Marylou, Dean leaves them on their own in a second. People not only stayed on the move from location but also from people. It was as if people got bored of each other and wanted new friends around them. This shows how the beats always desired change in their lives in every aspect.

            The fun of being on the road is starting to fade away by the time Sal makes his third trip. He is depressed and does not seem to have a good time with Dean. Camille is pregnant and Dean is injured because he tried hitting Marylou for sleeping around. This shows how hypocritical Dean is because he has been moving between the two women for a long time now. The two friends start to have conflicts due to Dean’s recklessness and conceited mind set. Dean gets another girl pregnant in New York knowing his wife in Camille is about to have their second child. Sal starts disapproving of Dean’s actions and life. The Beats cannot stay young forever no matter how hard they try; they will mature and start developing morals of right and wrong. For example, Sal starts off by admiring Dean and wanting his life but by the end of the third trip Sal is much more mature and stable than Dean. He realizes it is not right to get another woman pregnant while your wife is about to have a child. Sal starts to get some independence from Dean because he no longer finds Dean’s actions to be glorious. The people of the beat generation develop despite their desire to be away from society.

            Part four is the peak of Sal and Dean’s conflict. Sal is completely independent of Dean at this point and plans to go on the road again with his friend Stan. It is now Dean that follows him and buys a car in order to go on the trip with them. After a party in Georgia, Sal is very sick and is not entirely conscious. Instead of caring for his friend, Dean continues without Sal and moves on. Sal is upset at Dean but realizes that this is who he is and nothing will ever change him. By this part of the book Dean and Sal represent two different types of Beats. Sal loves being on the road but he knows wrong from right and has loyalty. Dean is selfish and only cares about being on the move, he drops anything that will cause him to stay still. The beats that were like Dean will never have solid friendships or relationships because they are unable to stay committed. Beats like Sal can balance being on the road with being a good person.

            The final part of the book is the most significant. Sal plans on moving to San Francisco with his girlfriend while Dean is still running around between Camille and other girls. Dean offers Sal one last adventure to San Francisco but Sal denies it. Sal has had his times of craziness and freedom but is now ready to settle down. Everyone, including the Beat Generation, will eventually have to settle down in order to have a stable life. Once they are satisfied with being on the move that will want a change towards a calm and normal life. Sal realizes this and chooses a girl to be committed to and a city he will live in for a good amount of time. Dean refuses to calm down and continues with his unstable life and failed relationships.

            Sal Paradise represents the Beat Generation and movement throughout the whole book. He loves his times on the road but realizes that he must settle and develop a stable life. Sex and jazz do not bother him, he is very comfortable around these once shunned activities. He is it the happiest when he is alone with nature because it is very peaceful. The reader completely understands what it was like to be part of the Beat movement and generation once On The Road is wrapped up.  

Term Paper

 Ali Mondini-Boschetti

Period 5

Term Paper

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

In Jack Kerouac’s book On The Road, Sal is ready for adventure after going through a divorce and an illness. He has the pleasure of meeting Dean, who is carefree and excited to be alive. Going on a journey and getting close to Dean was a good thing for Sal, to help him get over the bad experiences he was facing. Dean gave Sal the privilege to start living an exciting and fun-filling life, rather than being stuck in his sad and depressing one. The road becomes Sal and Dean’s home; it is all they have, apart from each other. The lifestyle they have come to embrace is rejected by society and spontaneous, yet makes them content with life. The road is not only Sal and Dean’s home, but it is also a huge part of their lives.

What is the road? Is it Sal’s home? Or is it Sal’s escape? From the reading, it can be implied that the road is both Sal’s home and way of escaping his life. Being on the road means the people that once were in your life (family, friends, etc.) will no longer be in it (at least for when being on the road). The only person one has on the road is oneself (well, at least in the beginning of the journey). After awhile, it becomes almost automatic to become comfortable with the idea of having no one to rely on but oneself.  Being alone will not last long. One encounters many people when they are on the road. Never knowing whom one will encounter next makes the road exciting. Never knowing what you will learn from the people one encounters is too an exciting factor of being on the road.  One thing that is important to consider though is that one is on the road on ones own, to trust and rely on no one but oneself for anything and everything.

Living on the road, alone, puts a great amount of time on your hands. Having such a huge quantity of spare time, one gets to know who one really is, one-on-one, close, and personal. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the top level is self-actualization. Maslow said: “What a man can be, he must be.” Every human has the desire of becoming more and more what one is. To become everything that one is capable of becoming and to achieve everything that one is capable of doing. The road allows one to personally develop oneself and reach a state of self-actualization. Sal does not know where he is going. He may have an idea but he does not entirely know where he’ll end up. All he really pays attention or cares about is the journey. That is the reason why he hits the road in the first place: to find himself (Ewen 1).

The road gives one the opportunity to start a new life. To experience things one has never experienced before. Even though it might be hard at first to adjust to this lifestyle, it is a sort of liberation from the life one was stuck living in.  Many people, at a point in their life, have felt the urge to disappear, or escape for a couple of months, or start their life over again. And that is just what the road has to offer. It could be the best or the worst thing that happens to anyone.

            While on the road, Sal worries and cares about where he is going, but it’s not really his primary concern. In Sal’s unconscious, all that matters is the experience he gets out of this journey, not where he is going. The places he goes to obviously have some sort of influence on Sal, but the greatest influence he has is from the situation he is in.

Kerouac wrote this book after the Great Depression and World War II. Most of the soldiers that had just come back from being at war were looking to start new families in a new house and with brand new jobs. Even though the vast majority of soldiers wanted this, some probably grew tired of all the traumatic things they had experienced at war and wanted to take some time off to find themselves again. To take a break from life and hit the road; to have a lifestyle like Sal’s. These young men were on the edge of dissatisfaction. Even though it’s been about fifty years since the book was written, the ideas and experiences that Sal undergoes in the book are to this day very much alive. Expressions of restless youth who strongly desire something more than what society expects them to become or to be, something out of the norm, something different and dangerous, something not everyone has the courage to do.

Kerouac is known to be one of the most influential members of the “Beat Generation”. This movement began in the 1950s. It rejected the values of the middle class in America. Its members did not agree with how materialistic Americans had become. These people are now referred to as “hippies”. The “Beat Generation” was characterized by its “spiritual and sexual liberation, liberation of the world from censorship, decriminalization of some laws against marijuana and other drugs, musical appreciation, as evidenced by Bob Dylan, The Beatles, etc., and opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization.” These elements of the “Beat Generation” are important to consider when reading Kerouac’s book. (Beat Generation)

Considering the historical circumstances this book was written in, one could understand why Kerouac chose or wanted to write a book of this manner. Members of the “Beat Generation” were dying to liberate themselves from the unpleasant ways of society. Kerouac’s book actually is a true story of his. He renamed all the characters but the story line refers to events that happened in his life. Even though the story Kerouac tells in his book was real, the way he wrote On the Road was truly rare and unique. Unlike most writers, Kerouac wrote the book on a 120-foot manuscript, not giving himself the freedom of having the option of erasing something he had written.

Kerouac wrote his book going with the flow, which is how Sal traveled on the road, with no desire to turn back. For Sal, it was always about the next city, the next experiences he would face, and the next destination he was about to reach. The book and the author both share the appreciation for motion. For both Kerouac and Sal, motion acts as an outlet from society and plugs them into their true desires.

Francois Boschetti decided at age twenty-one to drop out of law school and make his life worth living. He grew tired of society’s expectations while he attended college and all the pressure that was being put on him by his teachers, colleagues, friends, family, etc. to succeed.  He decided to hit the road and travel from Michigan to California on his own. He lived on the road for about a year, going from motel to motel, and meeting people of all kinds, experiencing life and living it the way he wanted to, being the person he wanted to be with no pressure or dilemmas.

The first time his mother ever saw him after the one year he spent missing in action, she could barely recognize him. He explained to her how he did not really know himself before he hit the road. He discovered his true purpose in life, his passion, and his new views on things like politics and religion. On the road, he met a guy named Roy Smith, who he spoke to me about greatly.

They traveled together for a long time before he decided it was time for him to go home, so they became extremely close with each other. Thanks to Roy, my uncle came to the realization of his true passion: painting. Roy somehow realized the invigorating love he had for it and made him embrace this. Francois, at first, thought Roy was crazy, but then realized that he was right. That he did not want to admit this to his conscious because being a painter meant disappointment to his father, who wanted him to become a lawyer. Roy made Francois see that it was perfectly fine to want something in life. That doing what your parents want their kids to do is not only unfair, but stupid. They are not the ones to control their lives, they are. Francois completely changed his perspective towards this issue and began to think of enrolling himself into art school, which he did when he left the road. He is now a successful artist and is recognized nationally in Venezuela.

The road influences everyone that goes on it in many ways. For example, Dean came out of the road refusing to change. He still did not want to have responsibility in general, not even with women. Instead, Sal came out of the road wanting to move on from his old life. He had already experienced his freedom and irresponsibility and wanted to have a sense of commitment, like wanting to settle with Laura.

Depending on the type of person one is, being on the road may sound either scary or fun.  It may be depressing or exciting, adventurous or boring. Regardless of how one feels, the road has the power to transform anyone into the person they are meant to be: oneself.

Whether the road makes you change in a good way or a bad way, it is a good journey to undergo. The multiple experiences one gets out of being in that situation are numerous. Having the liberty to do whatever one feels like doing or to go wherever one feels like going is superb. The road gives one the opportunity to get in touch with oneself and discover their purpose in life, to discover the reason why one was brought to the Earth to do. That is one of the biggest gifts the road offers its travelers.

"On The Road" Term Paper

Zack Meier 

Term Paper

The cyclical nature of life is unavoidable, the rhythm is irresistible and the movement is inherent. Sal’s journey detailed in “On The Road” is one that reinforces these ideas, the true nature of man lies outside of societal convention. The journey of life is one where you will always be on the road, forging new friendships, experiencing what’s new, dealing with loss and, most importantly, going with the “flow”. Life in motion outside of society is the cure for the suffering of consciousness; it is the essential therapy of life.

 In order to understand this point of view, one must first understand where and what type of society these views come from. The author of this book, Jack Kerouac, is known to be a leader of and even considered the founder of the “Beat Generation”. This self-titled generation emerged as a group in the 1950s and proceeded to reject the American middle class values. Essentially, they were America’s first version of a group that would be known as “hippies” in later decades. The movement was characterized by its spiritual and sexual liberation, rejection of censorship, drug use, musical appreciation, and its opposition to the laws of society and civilization. These pillars of the Beat movement and the entire Beat generation are fundamental in gaining an understanding of “On The Road”. In order to emphasize these values, Kerouac wrote this novel in a unique way. Rather than writing and rewriting a novel with the ability to edit, Kerouac wrote the novel as a continuous piece on a 120-foot manuscript. The writing, pace and tone of the novel reflect the “flow” with which Kerouac was writing. This writing technique allowed him to build characters that followed his own rhythm, and the events of the novel match the spirit of the author’s mood. Fatigue, depression, hope and happiness, a full range of emotions that are necessary in this novel of the Beat generation. This method of writing relates to the constant movement and dissatisfaction of Sal throughout the story. Much like how Sal travelled the country with no longing to turn back, Kerouac was able to write what he desired without fear of censorship. It was always about the next destination; much how Kerouac was always longing for that next perfect word with which to craft his novel. The story and the author share a genuine connection in their appreciation for rhythm and motion, and these things are the outlets for their desires and the ideas that lift life’s pressures from their consciousness.

The novel starts with the main character Sal Paradise. Sal is a writer living in New Jersey but he is bored and depressed. Staying home writing is just not what he thought it would be, and he hears about a man named Dean Moriarty. At the instant Dean’s name is introduced into the book, Sal becomes more active. Something about this name intrigues him without actually knowing the man himself. It is this blind desire that drives Sal throughout the course of the story. It is not long before Sal has a strong desire to travel west, and to meet his new friends in Denver. This is the moment where the title begins its ascension in significance to the reader. This is where Sal begins his journey “On the Road”; this is the moment where his obsession begins. Sal leaves a comfortable, stationary situation for the life of a hobo on the road and never looks back. Once bored and depressed, Sal now has purpose and the entire West Coast in front of him. A journey is ahead of him and he begins to feel alive.

There is a noticeable change in the tone and pace of the novel during the segments where Sal is on the road. The novel seems to pick up a quicker pace, and seems to have more energy in its use of long, drawn out sentences. Once he leaves New York, the pace is furious with people entering and leaving the story, girls rejecting him at multiple bars, or him switching to numerous different means of transportation as he attempts to get to Denver. The pace is lively and packed with energy, and in these same segments Sal is lively and packed with energy on the road even though he may be tired and starved for food. Sal’s and the novel’s tone changes for the better as well. An example of this is when Sal reaches Iowa for the first time. In Des Moines Sal says that it is the home of the most beautiful girls in the world. Everything he eats is absolutely delicious and it seems as though every feeling he feels is absolutely euphoric. Every object is described with a superlative and these details mark Sal’s apparent excitement and joy. The anticipation of what is to come has given Sal a reason to drive onwards and a reason to enjoy the subtle beauties of the world where he would ordinarily see none.

This excitement and jubilation contrasts with the feeling that Sal begins to feel once he reaches his destination. Once in Denver Sal is excited to be there, he finds a place to live and his friends but he does not find a purpose to be there other than to simply live. It seems as though as soon as he gets there he is once again restless and bored. He becomes stationary again, so he travels to Central City, back to Denver and then to San Francisco. At this point, one can begin to theorize that Sal is a man who loves the journey. It has always been said that the journey is greater than the final destination. Dreaming about going to a place, dreaming of reaching a place is always greater than actually being there. Everyone wants to see how a movie trilogy ends but no one ever wants to see it the end. Once the destination is reached, what else is there to dream about, what is there to do but to go on another journey? This is Sal’s philosophy. The moment a person is born into this society, they are told to go to school, to grow up, to get a job, with this job they earn money, with this money they will buy a house, once a house is purchased they must start a family to move in with, then they need to buy more things and continue to progress at their job, and they progress until they have enough money to retire. At this point they have completed their “journey” and are no long on the road, so to speak. Is it not true that this should be the happiest and most entertaining segment of their life? No, they had acquired society’s riches and played society’s game in order to finish the journey, but this is simply not the case. Retiring is the first step in resigning to the fact that death is inevitable, it is acknowledging the fact that death is apparent and will have an affect on oneself. Retiring from the journey is the act of preparing for death in a sense. People want to retire and travel the world to see everything and do everything they have wanted to do their entire lives, why? They do this because they have the money to do so, because death is encroaching, mostly they do it in order to create another journey to go on. But if asked, any old retired person would give the world to be young, poor and healthy again. On their deathbed, when they think back on their life, they will not smile at the retired years and be proud of the fact that they were able to do the things they desired to do. They

will be proud of the fact that they were able to earn enough money and have the journey to do those things, they will long for the journey. There is no life in idleness, only death.

Once Sal settles into San Francisco he finds another stationary life where he is neither able to keep a job nor to keep friends. After this he meets a girl that he claims to love but can not keep and then he travels back to New York.  Three times more Dean will enter the life of Sal Paradise and twice more Sal will join him on a journey across the country to San Francisco and Mexico. With Sal becoming both increasingly closer and farther from Dean each time. They become closer friends but as Sal begins to mature, Dean begins to close into himself and regress. Dean is a part of Sal, Dean is his desires and he wishes that he could be a spontaneous and reckless as Dean. As Dean begins to regress and become more incoherent, Sal’s desire to be spontaneous, reckless and his desire to go on wild trips across the country fade away as well. The road is what defines Dean and Dean is the definition of the road in Sal’s mind. There is a journey where Sal plans to travel without Dean, and once Dean enters the crowd again the entire mood changes. Without Dean, Sal sees the world without restless apprehension and he is calmer in his observations. With Dean, Sal begins to have the apprehensions and regains that need to be on the move but without the earlier excitement. As Dean’s famous personality fades, so does the energy that surrounds being on the road.

The entire novel, these characters are on the fringes of society. They enjoy the lifestyle of hobos. They refuse to hold real jobs in order to earn money and will do whatever it takes for someone to give them money. They live by stealing and taking advantage of society form its fringes. They do this when they are on the road and in motion between destinations. Their journey is on the edge of society, with the hobos, drunks and drug addicts. Unsurprisingly, they become addicted to this lifestyle and find that the city, the civilization, and the society are not what they desire. Cities are only destinations between journeys; society is only a pit stop. In living life, there is no room for the troublesome rule and regulations of society, and when they are ignored it is much more pleasurable. Who cares where it is to go or how to get there, as long as there is a journey to be had, and as long as there is a purpose set forth, then there is an opportunity to, in a literal sense, pursuit happiness. While the world remains idle, those who are on the road have a clear conscious without societal judgments. Motion allows Sal to forget his worries and motion allows him to know that he is still alive.

Motion as Therapy Excerpt

The cyclical nature of life is unavoidable, the rhythm is irresistible and the movement is inherent. Sal’s journey detailed in “On The Road” is one that reinforces these ideas, the true nature of man lies outside of societal convention. The journey of life is one where you will always be on the road, forging new friendships, experiencing what’s new, dealing with loss and, most importantly, going with the “flow”. Life in motion outside of society is the cure for the suffering of consciousness; it is the essential therapy of life.

 In order to understand this point of view, one must first understand where and what type of society these views come from. The author of this book, Jack Kerouac, is known to be a leader and even considered the founder of the “Beat Generation”. This self-titled generation emerged as a group in the 1950s and proceeded to reject the American middle class values. Essentially, they were America’s first version of a group that would be known as “hippies” in later decades. The movement was characterized by its spiritual and sexual liberation, rejection of censorship, drug use, musical appreciation, and its opposition to the laws of society and civilization. These pillars of Beat movement and the entire Beat generation are fundamental in gaining an understanding of “On The Road”. In order to emphasize these values, Kerouac wrote this novel in a unique way. Rather than writing and rewriting a novel with the ability to edit, Kerouac wrote the novel as a continuous piece on a 120-foot manuscript. The writing, pace and tone of the novel reflect the “flow” with which Kerouac was writing. This writing technique allowed him to build characters that followed his own rhythm, and the events of the novel match the spirit of the author’s mood. Fatigue, depression, hope and happiness, a full range of emotions that are necessary in a novel of the Beat generation. This writing for Kerouac can relate to the constant movement and dissatisfaction of Sal throughout the story. Kerouac let what he desired to write take him with no censorship, much like how Sal travelled the country with no longing to turn back. It was always about the next destination; much how Kerouac was always longing for that next perfect word with which to craft his novel. The story and the author share a genuine connection in their appreciation for rhythm and motion, and these things are the outlets for their desires and the ideas that lift life’s pressures from their consciousness.

-Zack Meier 

Hitting the road

In Jack Kerouac’s book On The Road, Sal is ready for adventure after going through a divorce and an illness. He has the pleasure of meeting Dean, who is carefree and excited to be alive and to live life. Going on a journey and getting close to Dean was a good thing for Sal, to help him get over his experiences and to start living an exciting and fun-filling life. The road becomes Sal and Dean’s home; it is all they have, apart from each other. The lifestyle they have come to embrace is rejected by society and spontaneous, yet makes them content with life. The road is not only Sal and Dean’s home, but also their life.

Being on the road means the people that you left behind (family, friends, etc.) are no longer with you. The only person you have on the road is yourself (well, at least in the beginning of your journey). After awhile, you become comfortable with the idea of having no one, trusting no one but yourself, and relying on yourself for everything and anything. What is the road? Is it Sal’s home? Or is it Sal’s escape? From the reading, it can be implied that the road is both Sal’s home and way of escaping his life.

Living on the road, alone, means you have too much time with yourself. This way, you get to know the real you one-on-one; close and personal. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the top level is self-actualization. Maslow said: “What a man can be, he must be.” Every human has the desire of becoming more and more what one is. To become everything that one is capable of becoming and to achieve everything that one is capable of doing. The road allows you to personally develop yourself and reach a state of self-actualization. Sal does not know where he is going. He may have an idea but he does not entirely know where he’ll end up. All he really pays attention or cares about is the journey. That is the reason why he hits the road in the first place: to find himself.

The road gives you the opportunity to start a new life. To experience things you have never experienced before. Even though it might be hard at first to adjust to this lifestyle, it is a sort of liberation from the life you were stuck living in.  I’m pretty sure a lot of people, at a point in their life, have felt the urge to disappear, or escape for a couple of months, or start their life over again The road offers you all of these things. It could be the best or the worst thing that happens to you.

            While on the road, Sal worries and cares about where he is going, but does it really matter? In Sal’s unconscious, all that matters is the experience he gets out of this journey, not where he is going. The places he goes to obviously have some sort of influence on Sal, but the greatest influence he has is from the situation he is in.

Kerouac wrote this book after the Great Depression and World War II. I could imagine that soldiers that had just come back from being at war would want to have a lifestyle like Sal’s. These young people were on the edge of dissatisfaction. Even though it’s been about fifty years since the book was written, the ideas and experiences that Sal undergoes in the book are to this day very much alive. Expressions of restless youth who strongly desire something more than what society expects them to become or to be, something out of the norm, something different and dangerous, something not everyone has the courage to do.

My uncle Francois Boschetti decided at age twenty-one to drop out of college and make his life worth living. He grew tired of society’s expectations while he attended college and all the pressure that was being put on him by his teachers, colleagues, friends, family, etc. to succeed.  He decided to hit the road and travel from Michigan to California on his own. He lived on the road for about a year, going from motel to motel, meeting people of all kinds, experiencing life and living the life he wanted to live, being the person he wanted to be with no pressure or dilemmas. The first time I ever saw him after the one year he spent missing in action, I could barely recognize him. He decided that he did not really know himself. He discovered his true purpose in life, his passion, and his new views on things like politics and religion.

Depending on the type of person you are, being on the road may sound either scary or fun.  It may be depressing or exciting, adventurous or boring. Regardless of how you feel, the road will transform you into the person you are meant to be: yourself.

-Ali Mondini-Boschetti

Motion As Therapy

Sal is on a mission, his dissatisfaction proves that he does not know what his mission is nor where it will end but he is on a journey to find himself throughout the entire novel. His state of discontent only dissipates when he looks to the future and is in the act of motion. He has no home because the road is his home, the road is his sanctuary. He finds peace in the chaos of unorganized motion and the drugs, alcohol and relationships on the way are secondary to the motion. I believe that there is no greater feeling for him than the feeling of being in action because while in action (journeying down "the road") one loses their conscious thoughts. When in action, it is easier to allow emotion, instinct and the rawest form of your human being take over. Therapy is usually the act of expressing conscious thought but Sal's therapy is the act of repressing consciousness in favor of the action and chaos of the road. 
-Zack Meier

Restless Dissatisfaction

"I cursed, I cried for Chicago. 'Even now they’re all having a big time, they’re doing this, I’m not there, when will I get there!'- and so on."
"Now I could see Denver looming ahead of me like the Promised Land, way out there beneath the stars, across the prairie of Iowa and the plains of Nebraska, and I could see the greater vision of San Francisco beyond, like jewels in the night."
These two quotes from Sal seem to summarize the reason for his constant motion. He is dissatisfied always dissatified, and he is in a constant state of looking foward to the future. Some say that humans enjoy the journey, not the end result and as Sal's travels progress he is looking foward to the next place instead of enjoying his journies and remaining in the moment. In Sal's mind there is no happiness to be found on the road, only a constant state of anxious suffering. An attitude of dissatisfaction that carries the burden of unnecessary foresight 
-Zack Meier

What's The Point?

This entire book begs the question, "What's the point?". What is the point of staying in place? What is the point of friendship? What is the point of humanity?
The entire book rejects the idea of a plot, or the idea of organization. This can be attributed to the constant flow of words with which it was written, but it is due to a more profound reason than that. The point of rejecting a classic novel structure, the point of friendship, the point of movement and purpose all lie in the same place. All of these things lay within a person and purpose can only be accessed when in the flow of nature.
The idea of "flow", the idea of constant movement and the quest to achieve true humanity has been ongoing throughout human history but this novel demostrates the quest in the modern world. In order to truly become human, one must reject the inherent organizational skills that make us human. Society and civilization are not pushing us foward, rather, they are holding us back.

-Zack Meier

Movie!!

To be released later this year 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337692/ 

- Cati

Such Great Detail

In Chapter 4 of On The Road, Dean says to Sal: 


"Oh! This is too great to be true. Gurls, gurls. And particularly right now in my stage and condition, Sal, I am digging the interiors of these homes as we pass them — these gone doorways and you look inside and see beds of straw and little brown kids sleeping and stirring to wake, their thoughts congealing from the empty mind of sleep, their selves rising, and the mothers cooking up breakfast in iron pots, and dig them shutters they have for windows and the old men, the old men are so cool and grand not bothered by anything. There’s no suspicion here, nothing like that. Everybody’s cool, everybody looks at you with such straight brown eyes and they don’t say anything, just look, and in that look all the human qualities are soft and subdued and still there. Dig all the foolish stories you read about Mexico and the sleeping gringo and all that crap — and crap about greasers and so on — and all it is, people here are straight and kind and don’t put down any bull. I’m so amazed by this."


All of that was just from passing through houses on the road. This is an example of how detailed Kerouac's writing is. 


-Ali Mondini

On The Road

Kerouac wrote On the Road in a way that made his words flow. It was intriguing yet inconsistent at times. His writing was very to the point, yet with a poetic sense to it. Kerouac uses great imagery. The scenes of all the places he visits around the country are described in great detail. It is as if we could close our eyes and jump into the same exact scene his characters are in. 
The characters are sincerely fascinated with almost everything; little things, big things, meaningful things, meaningless things... The character that is most fascinated by anything is definitely Dean. 
I loved the idea of a young writer who is desperate to get started. He is desperate to have new and adventurous experiences to get him to become a better  writer. When Sal decides to hit the road, he described his attempt as something that can't get started. Reading that made me think that that is how an unexperienced writer probably feels like when he wants to write a book. In the beginning of the book, Sal is deceived a frustrated writer and person.


-Ali Mondini

Inspiration

The characters in this book are truly inspiring. They live in the present with no worries and take everything day by day. These are characteristics that i feel our generation unfortunately lacks. It is sad that our generation no longer takes risks like the characters in the book do because the fear of not knowing what is going to happen stops us. The irresponsibility and spontaneouty of not having a plan is what stops us from taking chances. This book makes me want to pack up and take a road trip. Every time i read i think "maybe my parents will let me when i am done with school or when i am older" but i remember i have to deal with school, water polo, or family. these would not allow me to make the trip but these are exactly the thoughts that the characters never had. They wanted something and went out to do it without thinking of the consequences. I admire them.

-Cati Sesana

Unrest

Unrest in America, unrest in a generation. Sal symbolizes these things. He is restless, he is full of energy and seeks other sources of energy. New York, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are all centers of energy. Dean, Carlo, Remi and Terry all possess the same unrest. All of these people are drawn together through a mutual recognition of energy. The problem with this generation, with these people and with this movement is that there is no direction for them to go in. Without direction, they just go. Unlike the generations before them that had been caught up in war and building America, this generation possesses the energy to move, to be and to desire. This "On The Road" mentality would translate into a revolutionary energy in the next generation, an energy that would cause turmoil in America and an era defined by the Civil Rights Movement. 
-Zack Meier

Going Places

Reading this book has definitely inspired me to hit the road at one point in my life. Some of the places that were traveled really called my attention. Here are some of the places Sal and his friends visited:

Bear Mountain Bridge in New York

In “On the Road”, they cross the Bear Mountain which is in New York. It connects Rockland and Westchester across the Hudson River. It was once considered the longest suspension bridge.

Omaha, Nebraska

One of the places mentioned in the book is Omaha. It is described as having lots of cowboys, cowboy boots, and ten-gallon hats. If you are interested in getting a taste of what Sal experienced while at Omaha, you can click on this link, which will show you recreations of bank robberies, train robberies, and cowboy characters. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zSK0qykyG_8&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

Chicago, Illinois

Another big stop in the book is Chicago. Jazz was extremely popular at the time in this city. The characters in the book experienced this type of music when they arrived. Kerouac would be impressed if he saw this link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WakEtksj060&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

Jack Kerouac Reading "On The Road"

Cool sound clip of Jack Kerouac reading his own book, "On The Road". He brings some spirit to it in the reading.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MjPtem6ZbE

-Zack Meier

Living in the Present

As Sal travels the country and progresses in his journey, it becomes more apparent that there is no plan and no future in Sal's mind. This becomes clear as he arrives in Sabinal with Terry. He accompanies Terry to her home in Sabinal in order to meet up with her family and to find work. At every failed attempt of finding work or progression the word "mañana" is uttered. The word serves to diffuse responsibility to the next day, to the future. The future that never comes. Sal lives in the present and "mañana" is what keeps him there. If he ever has any responsibility or any problem he can always fix it "mañana". Sal Paradise is always living in the present. Paradise is always one day away....
-Zack Meier