On the Road Essay

The Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden starts off in a town called Moose Factory in Canada shortly after WW1. “Auntie” is waiting for the arrival of her nephew, Xavier‘s, friend Elijah. However, she is shocked to find that it is her nephew who returns. She had received a letter that said her nephew had died in the field of battle and that Elijah was wounded, and only had one leg. When her nephew steps off the steps she thinks he is a ghost until he falls to the ground, because he to is shocked for he had heard that she was dead. Then they start their journey down the river to their home in the bush. On this journey they both reminisce of the

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

Many times the protagonists become the victims of the story and are eventually defeated. This is the case in Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road. The protagonist, Xavier Bird, is the victim and is eventually defeated by the powers and doings of the people that he encounters during the war, and also by the uncontrollable forces that act upon him during the course of the war. Ultimately, these two factors overpower him and lead to his emotional defeat.

(E) The motif of the entire novel revolves around fire. Fire is used as a literal object as well as a

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.

As cell phones become more popular, texting while driving is becoming the most widely known cause for car accidents among teens. The alarming rate of incidents where texting is involved is getting more parents worried and warning their children about the danger of texting while driving. Parents are urging the fact that drivers should pay attention to the road and traffic, not their phones. A popular study of 18 to 24 year old drivers showed that 66 percent of them have texted while driving. Since texting while driving is becoming more popular many states are passing a law to ban the use of any cell phone device while in a vehicle. Texting while driving is an important issue that is causing many deaths and those who cause these deaths and

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

Jerome David Salinger’s only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is based on the life events shaping main character, Holden Caulfield, into the troubled teen that is telling the story in 1950. The theme of the story is one of emotional disconnection felt by the alienated teenagers of this time period. The quote, “ I didn’t know anyone there that was splendid and clear thinking and all” (Salinger 4) sets the tone that Holden cannot find a connection with anyone around him and that he is on a lonely endeavor in pursuit of identity, acceptance and legitimacy. The trials and failures that Holden faces on his journey to find himself in total shed light on Holden’s archenemy, himself.

I had just gotten over a serious illness that I won't bother to talk about, except that it had something to do with a miserably weary split-up and my feeling that everything was dead" (Kerouac 1). Thus begins Sal's life on the road and his search for a more meaningful, authentic life. He has failed to find authenticity in mainstream society but hopes to find it on society's fringes. In the novel, Sal's search for authenticity begins and ends with his association with Dean Moriarty. His highly charged friendship with Dean Moriarty continues throughout the novel but finally ends with a denouement in Mexico City. In his frenetic search for authenticity, Sal encounters a continuous progression of marginalized people that include not only Dean's friends and sexual partners but also hobos, migratory farm workers and black jazz musicians. Sal feels that all these people have authenticity because they all value the immediate over the traditional expectations of mainstream society. Kerouac defines the intense moment or "It" as the culmination of the immediate. "It" is well illustrated when Sal and Dean, together with a group of their Beat friends, go to a wild party at the house of Rollo Greb on Long Island, and Dean enthuses about Rollo saying, "if you go like him all the time you'll finally get it." "Get what?" "It! It! I'll tell you - now no time, we have no time now" (127). Later in

In Langston Hughes, "On the Road" the Sargeant is a homeless Black man that is desperate for food and shelter. In his desperation, Sargeant goes to the church to refuge, but there is no one at the Church to help him get refuge. Although Sargent is living in a time where the depression is in existence amongst all people, Black and White, he finds no one to help him. Sargent goes to the Church because the Church helps people. However, because Sargeant is Black and the Church is populated by a White congregation, he is rejected. In the story " One the Road", one of the people: A big black unemployed Negro holding onto our church... "The idea"! This represents that Sargent wants the benefits of the white

Jack Kerouac is considered a legend in history as one of America's best and foremost Beat Generation authors. The term "Beat" or "Beatnic" refers to the spontaneous and wandering way of life for some people during the period of postwar America, that seemed to be induced by jazz and drug-induced visions. "On the Road" was one such experience of Beatnic lifestyle through the eyes and heart of Jack Kerouac. It was a time when America was rebuilding after WW I. Describing the complexity and prosperity of the postwar society was not Karouac's original intent. However, this book described it a way everyone could visualize. It contained examples and experiences of common people looking for new and exciting

In conclusion, Salinger has given his readers his three ingredients to the meaning of life; innocence, isolation, and insanity. These elements are what create his existentialist protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Who tries to keep The Myth of Sisyphus alive, by keep pushing that boulder or in Caulfield's mind, catch the innocent children from falling into adulthood. But in the end Caulfield comes to the realization of his insanity of delaying the inevitable, everyone must fall and it is up to one’s essence to get back