On the Road Essay

He yearns for an experience where there is no time, but only living in the moment. The moment was his escape. Although he never finds his ultimate experience, he goes on a long drive in search of it. He searches for the ultimate experience by deciding to travel the road with Sal. Dean tries numerous ways to discover his moment including women, drinking, and Jazz. Dean attempts to find “IT” by bouncing back and forth in different relationships with women. He becomes so obsessed with this desire that it only leaves him three times married, twice divorced, and living with his second wife. He even buys alcohol instead of food in order to grasp this ultimate experience that he is looking for. He also tries to find “IT” by attempting to get lost in the Jazz music at each joint he and his friends attend. He envies the alto Jazz musician that he and Sal sees at Harlem on Folsom Street. Dean says, “Now, man, that alto man last night had IT. He held it once he found it; I’ve never seen a guy who could hold so long. It’s not the tune that counts but IT” (Kerouac 206). Dean finally finds his “IT” when he and Sal arrive in Mexico. He exclaims, “Now, Sal, we’re leaving everything behind us and entering a new and unknown phase of things. All the years and troubles and kicks- and now this! So that we can safely think of nothing else and just go on ahead with our faces stuck out like this, you see, and understand the world” (Kerouac 276). Dean and Sal go to the Mexican house of prostitution after a few days exploring their new home. They dance with many different women, drink several cans of beer, and even sleep in the Mexican jungle at night with all the bugs just to discover that Dean is leaving Mexico City

-There is a focus on storytelling as a means of healing: "It is the story of my childhood. Now I tell it to you, Xavier, to keep you alive."(35)

Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of “the man” and “the boy” affect the way you /readers relate to them?

As the novel progresses, we realize that ironically Holden's alienation becomes the source of most of his pain throughout the book. Although he never realizes the fact that his pain is being derived from his isolation and lack of human interaction, Salinger places clues in the book that tell us that it is so. With the introduction of Sally Hayes, Salinger is able to craft a relationship that effectively depicts the conflict in Holden. It is loneliness that initially propels Holden into a date with Sally. However, during the date Holden's need for isolation returns, he "didn't even know why" he "started all that stuff with her. The truth is" he "probably wouldn't have taken her even if she wanted to go." Because Sally is unable to recognize the feelings on the "phoniness" of school that he projects, he becomes frustrated and uses a rampaging monologue to upset her and drive her away. The only time in the

It is remarkable how differentiated works of literature can be so similar and yet so different, just by the way the authors choose to use select certain literary devices. Two different novels, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, display these characteristics because of the ways the authors institute such mechanisms. Brave New World describes a futuristic era where humans are genetically manufactured for a certain job predestined to them before they are artificially created, and where common human emotions, desires, wants, and needs have all been modified to support a deemed utopian society where everyone lives and works together in harmony. The Road describes a post-apocalyptic

In the bildungsroman Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger employs the struggle of individuality, inevitable maturation, and the childhood corruption of adulthood to reveal Holden’s alienation from society.

This morning prior to the start of school in the area of Ash street it was reported that a man in a dark blue van had asked a student to come over to his van. Upon this being reported to the school we called Dispatch and an officer was sent to the seen to investigate. Pleas remind your students to be aware of their surrounding and to not approach cars and people that they do not know and to always eminently let an adult know of any situation like this

Because of his shortsighted tendencies, Dean only focuses on himself and his goals of finding new experiences, and he does not let anyone or anything keep him from perusing his goals no matter the consequences. This is best seen by the many times Dean gets married and fathers children only to abandon them to go back on the road. Sal mentions this stating, “Every new girl, every new wife, every new child was an addition to his bleak impoverishment.” (Kerouac 132). In “Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’: A Re-Evaluation” by Carole Gottlieb Vopat, Vopat compares a common theme about the characters in On the Road that explains the reasons for Dean’s single-minded actions. “Kerouac's characters take to the road not to find life but to leave it all behind: emotion, maturity, change, decision, purpose, and, especially, in the best American tradition, responsibility; wives, children, mistresses, all end up strewn along the highway like broken glass.” (Vopat). Because Dean does not want to take on any responsibilities and does not want close and emotional relationships, he chooses to take to the road and run from them. Over time Sal experiences more of Dean’s actions as well as the effects of his actions which leads to a change in Sal which will lead to his eventual and complete separation from

The turbulent societal changes of the mid-20th Century have been documented in countless forms of literature, film and art. On the Road by Jack Kerouac was written and published at the outset of the counter-culture movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This novel provides a first-hand account of the beginnings of the Beat movement and acts as a harbinger for the major societal changes that would occur in the United States throughout the next two decades. On the contrary, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a Hunter S. Thompson novel written in 1971 provides a commentary on American society at the end of the counter-culture movement. Thompson reflects on the whirlwind of political and social activism he experienced and how American society had

  In part I, chapter 3 of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Sal arrives at Des Moines and checks into a cheap, dirty motel room. He sleeps all day and awakens in time to witness the setting sun. As he looks around the unfamiliar room, Sal realizes that he doesn't understand his own identity. Identity lost, he states "I was half way across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future." He has lost the calming influence of his aunt, and Dean and partners are not around to feed his wild streak. The only clues to his identity are to be found in the strange motel room. This appeal to emotion gives the reader personal hints to identify with.

"Hi" He said not understanding why the detective still looked at him expectantly. When he realized she didn't actually knew where he lived, he quickly told her his address. He also gave her the opportunity to drop him off wherever she wanted, not knowing how much of a detour the detective would have to make to take him to his place.

conning me and I knew it (for room and board and how to write), and he

Having been amongst the first and most profound post-war, counterculture novels written, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, provides an interesting insight into the changing landscapes in the United States, and the extent to which America was undergoing a new paradigm. Kerouac’s novel outlines the anti-establishment lifestyle through the lense of the two primary characters, Dean and Sal, who are seen traveling around the country on their various escapades. However, the novel takes careful measure to display the extent to which America was becoming a capitalist and corporate nation, as reaping the benefits of such a massive war jump started the economy. The marginalization and racially-divided society that existed is a major theme throughout the novel, however, not in the traditional manner. In doing so, Kerouac tends to adopt a romantic appeal to the low-income and oppressed communities, without grasping the understanding of the privileged position he is in. In analyzing the extent to which Kerouac depicts a romanticized view of underprivileged and oppressed communities, it is apparent that he provides insight into the inherent issues of white privilege, subconscious suppression, and cultural appropriation that continues to plague American society in the modern day.

It is clear to us that Sal is unsatisfied with his life from the beginning, itching to try out new environments far from home. However, as he goes across the country—either with Dean or on his own—he realizes how unhappy he is. He desires to be another person, with another person,

After a short flight from Durban, we arrived in Port Elizabeth, where we were to start the drive through the Garden Route to Cape Town, I once again reviewed our itinerary. The narratives I read about the Garden Route from our itinerary and other travel brochures, made my nomadic heart beat faster.