In my opinion, this week’s reading of On the Road was the most entertaining thus far. Not only were we able to see a transition in settings between the first part and second part of the novel, but we also saw more aspects of Dean’s characters than in the previous readings. Because the other group members touched on nearly everything from the last chapter of the first part of the novel, I will mostly analyze events from the beginning of the second part.
At last, Dean comes back into the picture. We are back in New York for the holiday’s and we get to see Sal obsess more and more over Dean’s brilliance. I could not be happier with this change in the plot. After all, Dean is the most interesting character in the work and for this reason, I can honestly say that I like what I am seeing from Jack Kerouac in this part of the novel.
Although Felipe discussed a variety of connections between this past week’s lecture and On the Road, I definitely have a few other ideas that I would like to share. First of all, I would like to say that I believe Dean exemplifies the typical man in post-World War II America. In class we talked about the 30,000,000 young Americans that escaped from “society” and set up their own “rules” and eventually became what we know as hippies. Well, Dean is exactly that. Dean’s lifestyle is characteristic of that of a hippy. Moreover, I believe that Sal is caught in between his admiration for Dean and the institutions of family and church.
Throughout the novel, we have seen Sal desperately trying to become part of the west. The whole point of his time “on the road” was to reach this unconquered territory and become more like Dean. We see Sal trying so hard to be cool as he goes to parties and gets trashed and tries to pick up girls, but he does not come even close to Dean’s character in terms of popularity and overall perfectness.
One of the major problems with Sal’s attempt at becoming part of this new American lifestyle is his involvement with the institutions. The most obvious of these is that of the family institution. Sal still lives off his aunt and he would not make it to the west in the first place if it were not for his family’s financial assistance. Moreover, Sal also needs to cooperate according to the institution of the Church which he struggles to do when he practically begs for anything he can have sex with. Evidently, Sal has a lot of issues when it comes to fulfilling his dream of essentially becoming Dean.
One of the major problems with Sal’s attempt at becoming part of this new American lifestyle is his involvement with the institutions. The most obvious of these is that of the family institution. Sal still lives off his aunt and he would not make it to the west in the first place if it were not for his family’s financial assistance. Moreover, Sal also needs to cooperate according to the institution of the Church which he struggles to do when he practically begs for anything he can have sex with. Evidently, Sal has a lot of issues when it comes to fulfilling his dream of essentially becoming Dean.
I see what you're saying and I think I agree with you, especially the part about Sal's incredibly depressing sex life. I do agree that this was likely the most entertaining reading we've had, but that's like being the skinniest kid on the first day of fat camp in that it's not much of an accomplishment and you should still be ashamed of yourself. This is the most entertaining reading we've had because Dean was there and we saw him actually do something, we saw him as a character acting as opposed to an object Sal can stare at creepily. Dean continues to carry the story wherever story is present.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find to be more important/relevant about your post is the connections to the lecture, partially because they're more interesting than the story and partially because I think they get more to the core of the book. Now that you mention it I can definitely see Dean as a hippie, or more realistically as a parallel to the hippies. I say as a parallel because honestly I can't imagine him as what we identify as hippies, but he definitely tries to detach from societal structure in a way that is comparable. I think that would make Sal a citizen of the system, not necessarily the group who resents the hippies for being hippies, but more like the wannabe hippie who lives with his mom and doesn't have the balls to run away from home to jam out at Woodstock. I think Sal wants to break away the way Dean has but not because he doesn't like society, it's more because he sees Dean having fun and being the life of every party and he just wants to be that guy.
To an extent I think your post has revealed some sort of character in Sal, he's a guy who doesn't know what he wants but he knows he wants to be cool so he's chasing the life of the coolest person he knows, a life he doesn't belong in. Sadly that doesn't make him any less interesting.