Part 3 Review

      Luckily, unlike my blogs about parts one and two of On The Road, my blog is part three is going to be a lot less negative. At first, when reading the first few chapters I was not surprised to find out that Kerouac was going to continue the same cycle that he did in the first two parts by treating each part as almost a new novel with a new rising and falling action; however, I am happy to say that he did change major details to make the novel bearable to read.

      I am pleasantly surprised to finally call Sal the narrator of the novel. Part three is the story of the transition that Sal made from a distant ghost to a character who made his mark. He is no longer in the background but is present in the moment. This occurred through the role reversal  between Dean and Sal. Now, I perceive Dean to be a weak and cowardly character. He is so frightened to death to settle down with Camille that he sabotages his relationship so he can get out of it. He would rather drive on an endless road than be with one person for the rest of his life. But the sad thing is, the road is his excuse to live in a fantasy world rather than in reality. No matter if he goes east to west or back form west to east, Sal and Dean always end up on the Pacific or Atlantic coasts and are forced to deal with their problems. The middle section of America grants them the temporary ability to distance themselves from real life and the burdens that come with it.

      Furthermore, in terms of the hostile relationship with Camille and Dean, woman thus far have been useful for only one thing: sex. They are weak minded and to me, especially now of days where it is very possible that in the next few years our president could be a female, it is pretty sickening. Camille and the others have to realize that ‘men’ like Dean can never change. They are grown men that were never raised right. So in a sense, no matter how badly I feel for her, it is Camille’s fault for marrying Dean. She should of realized that no one can raise a man because he is too far gone.

      I am hopeful that Sal will continue to become his own man in part four and hesitantly say that the novel is getting somewhat better.