Dean's Weaknesses

       A number of conclusions can be made from the recent reading. First off, this is likely one of the weirdest novels that I have read in not only high school, but my life as a whole. In addition, the novel lacks a lot of the action that we have seen in other works of literature throughout the year such as The Kite Runner or Kafka’s short stories. Nonetheless, I do believe that Jack Kerouac is a great author who somehow keeps us captivated by this story which only features one or two interesting characters. The person who many would consider the main character, Sal, is awfully boring and does not really succeed in much. Throughout the novel so far he has just made desperate attempts at charming other women or becoming more “western”/hippy. Furthermore, he basically wants to become like Dean. This leads me to my next point, Dean is, in my opinion, the only character in the novel who is genuinely interesting. Whether we are learning about his past where he spent time in jail and had numerous affairs or we are looking at the present where he continues to be somewhat of a role model (for Sal), Dean does not disappoint us in relation to entertaining the reader. 

       As we delve more and more into Dean’s character, the last few chapters that we have read portray a number of sides to his personality that we have not really discussed yet. For the first time, we can notice a variety of weaknesses that Dean has. Before we basically designated Dean with the role of being a “baller” (at least Felipe did), but now we can really see Dean struggling in a number of scenes. The issues that he has with accepting the relationship between himself and Marylou is one that is fascinating for a few reasons. As Felipe implied in his post, the recent reading shows us Dean’s incapability of sustaining a relationship. Although he has these f*** buddies that he can call whenever he wants, the reality is that he does not have a companion. Moreover, I believe that Sal will start becoming a more involved character in the coming chapters by being more influential in Dean’s life. Dean is in need of someone to be with him, and Sal, well...Sal is definitely not going to pass up the opportunity of being with Dean.