Jack Kerouac Might Be Insane, and Dean Definately Is

"...Dean and Marylou were sleeping on my bed, Ed and I on my aunt's bed." Sal Paradise, page 70.

       And that's where we start our reading this week, ladies and gentlemen; we start with Dean the playboy having sex with a girl on Sal the worshiper's bed, and something tells me Sal couldn't be happier. Maybe he's hoping some of that Dean Moriarty charm will rub off on him in his dreams since it clearly isn't happening in reality. Normally I wouldn't start a post with a quote, but quite frankly I found this too funny to pass up mentioning. And even better, shortly after this line, Dean gets a call from ANOTHER girl, which is really just over-reinforcing it at this point. Unless, of course, Dean ends up getting an STD, then all of this will have been a nice setup to a great punchline and perhaps some actual plot. But as we all know, this story isn't about plot, or characters, or even the great almighty Dean. This story is about history- it's about history, and America, and any message Kerouac wants to pack in there. But... does Kerouac have a message? I mean we can kind of see his view on things but I can't really recall any situations where I could say "Yeah, there's Kerouac". Unless Sal is supposed to represent Kerouac (and if this is the case then boy, does Kerouac need a therapist) I don't really see him popping his head in the story to tell us what's in his head while he's writing this. Now, maybe he is Sal and he is simply expressing his fascination with the changing West but lack of courage to join it. Or maybe he's gay for a guy named Dean. Regardless, I'm not ruling out the possibility of the observing character to be the author's embodiment, but this is almost entirely because that seems to be the most reasonable assumption if we are to also assume that Kerouac has something to say beyond wanting to convey a little American history.

       Now I think we're all kind of glad to see Dean changing a little, some dimensions being added and all that. I like that he is becoming somewhat contradictory to himself and a little insane, and I think we can read a little more into him now. Dean has seemed to accept God but he doesn't seem to have thought it through. He has accepted this sort of natural balance where everything works itself out but also accepts that shit like a kid breaking a windshield and killing a man happens, so in his ramblings it seems as though he means that everything is going to work out for him. As usual, Dean seems predominantly concerned with himself, even in the adoption of his new mystic philosophy he has absolved himself of responsibility for his own actions and claimed a sort of divine protection, while simultaneously claiming that people are people and shit happens. Whether this makes Dean insane or stupid I am no position to say, but at least we're seeing some change.

       Okay that was all pretty much about one of the several chapters we read, so I'll make the rest of my reaction brief. Sal is horny and Dean is just a weird dude, like I get that he wants to see how Marylou behaves with another dude but how can he think it'll all be normal when he sits down to watch his friend fuck his girl? I feel like Dean would probably be perfectly comfortable, but evidently the other two weren't exactly down with being watched- they couldn't get into it. But there is one thing of actual importance I want to mention before I finish this: When Sal tells Dean they're buddies, Dean blushes. Now, maybe this is because Dean was embarrassed to ask Sal to bang Marylou, but a part of me wants to believe that it's because deep down Dean might be a little insecure about friendships. Sure, he can have any girl he wants anytime anywhere, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's not lonely. Now, this is me fishing for any sort of depth to his character so maybe I'm totally wrong, but I thought it was an idea worth mentioning.

Also Sal hasn't done anything for 88 pages, I think it's time we start wondering if he's even human.