Back On the Road

It's definitely been a while since I have read this book because I was apparently not expecting Sal's obligatory fawning over Dean at the start of Chapter 11. In the sort of writing that we have come to expect, Kerouac begins the chapter with a description of setting, more specifically of Sal describing his recent travels in such a way that we are told where he has been with his own personal touch to it, which is one thing I think Kerouac does really well: I always feel as though Sal is talking to me. Although, if he was actually talking to me I feel like I would not be able to take it for very long given that we cannot go two sentences in to a chapter without mention of Sal's not-so-secret men-crush, Dean Moriarty. Sal is about to give his brief description of Salt Lake City when he feels the need to mention that it is "the least likely place for Dean to have been born,". Now, perhaps this isn't necessarily "fawning" but I find it difficult to not chuckle any time Sal mentions Dean because he so often fawns over him.

Despite the frequency at which Sal exposes his totally platonic obsession with Dean, I have today reached a breakthrough in my own little obsession: "Dean vs Setting: Battle for the Title of Main Character". Sal mentions Dean very often, this is true, but just like the aforementioned example these mentionings are always breaks from his describing the setting- no matter how often he talks about Dean, he talks about his journey and environment even more. I still believe that Dean is more likely to be the story's protagonist than Sal, however even if this were to be the case Dean is taking a back seat to the setting, which I believe is the thing Kerouac really cares about.

We have previously discussed the presence of sexism in this story and I think there is a consensus that it is so present because of the time period in which the book is set. I believe Kerouac does a fantastic job of flushing out the setting through details like that, and in Chapter 11 we start to see the presence of racism, and like Sal's comments about Dean and like the sexism- the racism is not really given any sort of special attention, it kind of just happens and the story carries on because the only one who should notice it is the reader. There is no point where Sal just straight out says "Man, do I hate minorities" but the use of the word "Negro", which most of the modern English-speaking world recognizes as at least a little racist, and the way in which it is used denotes the racist undertones in this time period. 

While I do love talking about how well Kerouac describes setting, I suppose I should make a more constructive point, and that point is likely that on every page, no matter what is happening, whether Dean is there or not, the setting is going to be described to us. This is consistent and without fail. The question I had about this book I think I have now resolved, I now believe that the setting is without a doubt the main focus of this story and all the characters are minor in comparison. Think about the different characters, even Dean, think about how little they have really been described to us. We know so little about these people and yet the setting is being described to us constantly. I'm still not sure what kind of story Kerouac has tried to write, but I am sure that the setting was made more important than the characters.