Is Jack Kerouac trying to find his own identity through Sal?

Map of Sal's Journey

Hey guys,

So I found this map that sort of pin points all the places where Sal travels through or stops at according to passages from the novel. I thought it would be interesting and helpful to actually see where and how far he's traveled.

Enjoy.

http://littourati.squarespace.com/storage/kerouac-files/kerouac_map.htm

Hitchhiking Gone Wrong

Hey guys, I just wanted to share an article that I came across this morning. The article discusses a hitchhiker who was shot by a driver whom offered a ride. Moreover, I think the article clearly portrays the contrasts between the time in which On the Road is set to the modern world where hitchhiking is no longer as common. 

http://www.abcnews4.com/story/23503992/police-hitchhiker-shot-by-driver-offering-ride

Confirmation

       First off I just want to say how startlingly short this book feels, likely because I read through 3 chapters in roughly 8 pages. I fully understand why the Kerouac decided to split them up in the way that he did, however I personally have gotten used to the idea that after every chapter there should be a sense of having new and important information. I bring this up because the chapters in this book have me feeling "Well, story stuff kinda just happened. Now it's a new day." and I feel as though nothing uniquely important has happened.

       There was one thing evident in the entirety of the most recent reading that I found pretty significant, and it is a product of the whole gang being in the same place. I think this is the first time we get to see Dean from the eyes of more than just Sal, or at least in terms of those who know him relatively well. Now we know that its not just Sal that sees him as this eccentric playboy badass; all Dean's friends know that he has these wondrous adventures of debauchery, and that he steals cars, and dances, and fears nothing. Now that we have this confirmation- now that we know Sal is not just entranced by this figure, I think we need to ask ourselves why Dean is being built up so much. We have had a little glimpse into his past and seen that his life is by no means perfect, but why is he so cool to everyone around him, and why is he so important? Maybe this is due to cynicism and perhaps the fact that I have experienced many stories through many mediums, but I feel very confident in predicting that something is going to happen to Dean, or maybe he will cause something big. I almost just want to say that he will end up in prison, just based on what we know about him. Regardless, I think it will be interesting to see where Kerouac takes him.

Glamour

Sal has spent much of On the Road glamorizing his experiences and those around him such as Carlo Marx and Dean Moriarty. Sal’s ignorance shines through as they amuse themselves by stealing from young people who actually have jobs. One of Sal’s friends Tim Grey even says, “Isn’t this great? Using the opera stars bathroom and towels and shaving lotion and razors”(53). Sal is repulsed by the mere idea of having to get a job, and would rather than leaching off those around him. Ironically he believes himself to be part of the Denver community, referring to some of the other’s around him as tourists, as if he is not included in this group.

Sal is still amazed by Dean Moriarty whose abundance of moral value decreases continually. Sal has picked up many of Dean's characteristics, but some things still remain true to Sal. He still remains what is best described as the role of the observer. He pretends to sleep while he eavesdrops on Carlo and Dean’s midnight conversation. Sal forms very few opinions on many of his friends, and he does not want to take part of the conversation, he’d rather just listen. But for the first time cracks start to appear in Sal’s illusion of glamour in his surroundings. He’s not entirely impressed by Central City where he repeatedly refers backs the scene as “the baritone rises out of the dungeon” crying out “What gloom!”(52).  This scene and line “what gloom?” is referred back to again when he is at the party in the cabin as they sing again “ah me, what gloom!” (54). I think this is why Sal decides to move onto San Francisco. He doesn’t really want this illusion to dissipate, so he leaves.

Who’s the Freest Of Them All?

    This weeks reading proved to be quite interesting in that Sal trampled Dean’s free spirit through his blind faith and integration of ‘western’ philosophies in his life. It came to the point where Dean and Sal did not have enough money to continue on their journey and had to find jobs; however, Sal rejects this idea as he believes it will alter his perceptions on his voyage. If he were to work, Sal is frightened that it would strip away the ‘westernness’ out of him.  He is fearful that working will result in a freedom-less, meaningless life. The ‘western’ aspect that he is assimilating into will be diminished or even destroyed if he becomes a working man again.

    Dean isolates the working population as the problem of the world in that if people did not work, they would be able to do as they please and also experience the self-government that provides him such glee. Sal would rather have only a bed and some food if it is in conjunction with his liberty and the purity of nature.

    Unlike Sal, Dean needs material and physical pleasures like woman and cigarettes in order to survive as it makes him feel dominant in his surroundings. As a result, Sal becomes triumphant in his self inflicted battle of becoming the epitome of a western man. Through this actualization, hopefully Sal will be able to separate from Dean a little and become a self dependent man rather than one who needs the likes of Dean to feel accomplished.

"Ray called the waitress a whore" (pg. 50)

     Whether it is looking through an “address book for girls” (pg.42), commenting on the “beautiful well-dressed blonde” (pg. 47), or observing the huge “crew” (pg.48) of women working for him, I again found myself primarily focusing on the subordinate female roles that Sal comments on in this week’s reading;  he constantly emphasizes a woman’s combined purpose of being an object of a man’s physical pleasure in a superficial relationship while simultaneously being a subordinate waitress in both the diner and the household.  We furthermore realize that these conventions are not only defined by men, but also by the women themselves who accept their roles as slaves in the bedroom and in the kitchen;  for when Sal asks Rita, who is “lined up” (pg. 51) for him that night what she wants to do with her life, she responds, that her desire is to “just wait on tables and try to get along” (pg.51).  Also, with a simple demand of “Come on help us clean up the joint” (pg. 48) from Sal and his friends, the women automatically submit, as if the thought to reject the command never even crossed their minds.  Although I know Kerouac is honestly  portraying the attitude of the beat generation across America as he says, “Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together;  sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk” (pg.52), I cannot help but be somewhat dissatisfied with the clear discrimination of women by the men of the era.  Overall, I am slightly bothered by the novel because I feel like the author shares this superior attitude too.  

Sal as a Dynamic Character

         Throughout this week’s reading of On the Road, there was not one event that stuck out in particular. Instead, it was the combination of all of the occurrences that made the reading interesting. In chapters seven through ten, Jack Kerouac portrays the significant changes that Sal has experienced thus far in the novel. Before getting to Denver, Sal was essentially a homeless man who luckily found his way across the country. In the recent reading, Sal’s surrounding environment has completely changed. Perhaps it is because of the interest that I find in Dean’s character, but I felt as if the scenes in which Sal sits and admires the discussions between Carlo and Dean exemplified the change in environment. Before, on his way to Denver, Sal was exposed to other hitchhikers who spoke of meaningless ideas and situations. As a result, when Sal is exposed to this opportunity of listening to Dean and Carlo, he takes advantage because it provides him with such entertainment to hear two “maniacs” converse. Moreover, Sal’s exposure to other women and the overall party scene in these chapters is significant. “Only a few days ago I’d come into Denver like a bum; now I was all racked up sharp in a suit, with a beautiful well-dressed blonde on my arm, bowing to dignitaries and chatting in the lobby under chandeliers” (pg. 47). In this quote, Kerouac directly reminds the audience of Sal’s not-so-distant past and how much his life has changed in such short time. All in all, I do not believe that this week’s reading was that entertaining. However, in my opinion, the reading serves a great purpose of portraying Sal’s transition into the western mindset. 

Description and Time

Compared to the other books that we have read so far this year in class; such as Atlas Shrugged, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and the Calvino short stories, the amount of description in On the Road is significantly different. Atlas Shrugged, for example, can spend an entire page, or even at times pages, describing a single moment. Unlike Atlas Shrugged, Kerouac in On the Road spends only brief sentences or lines for describing events that can happen over days. But we also get a larger range of time, for example in On the Road, within the first forty five pages we have covered a span of time of about six months. Although the ability of the author to portray the events, emotions, and internal thoughts of characters depends on the author’s control and use of language, both modes of description; spending pages describing moments or spending pages describing days, allow the reader further insight into the conflicts and the story lines of the novels. 

               Because Kerouac breaks up what we have read so far in the novel into three distinct sections; the first section during which he meets Dean while he’s still in New York, the second on his journey to Colorado, and what we have seen as the beginning of the third as his time in Denver, we have also seen the development of Sal as a character. Since his journey to Denver his own image of himself has changed. He no longer believes that he is just boy who has only ever seen the town of which he has grown up in, but instead he now sees himself as equal to the others in his group, such as Chad King and Roland Major.

Revisiting

I am tempted to say I am "back to square one" in terms of my thoughts on this book, but I do feel that I cannot deny the focus on Sal's environment and temporary encounters, nor do I think anyone can. However, I must revisit my dismissal of Dean as a "main character" figure. Dean is an interesting character, this is difficult to deny. He is first described to us as this fascinating individual that Sal admired greatly. Sal admires him in such a way that I got the feeling he was more of a supporting character than a main character. I still believe Sal to be a supporting character, now I'm just trying to see what exactly he is supporting. Obviously the main character figure does not need to be one thing/person, but one has to be more emphasized than the other, or at least this is what I expect.

Chapter five began with an interaction between Sal and an attractive young woman that I found interesting; Sal is not only comfortable with random interactions with strangers, but seems to love trying to be close to someone he has never met. Granted, this instance may be more sexually driven than emotionally driven, but regardless I feel that he has a certain love for people, more so for strangers. So this chapter continued to be more about the journey of Sal, but the second Dean comes into the picture we're on the adventures of Dean Moriarty, with Sal as the narrator, supporting character, and spirited best friend. Maybe Sal has an awesome backstory, maybe his writings are about his adventures in unexplored jungle, maybe he's actually the creator of the universe just trying out the human experience, but so far we have no reason to believe he is any more normal than what has been shown to us. Dean has been characterized more than Sal has, and Sal has been the narrator this whole time; Dean has been given a dark past, exciting motivations, and has shown himself to have an interesting personality. Sal has been given... well he's a hitchhiker, and that is an interesting story on its own.

I do not think Sal is the main focus of this story, and I am struggling to decide if Dean is as important as I had originally hypothesized or if its all about the journey. I know I may very well be alone on this analysis, but I suppose that's half the fun. I don't need Sal to murder someone, I just need him to be interesting, maybe then I'll see him as more than just a lens for the story.