Part 2 of Term Paper (Meagan Adler)

The road allows them to look ahead without being defined by their pasts; the reader sees this at parts of the novel such as that where Sal expresses, “What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see tier specks dispersing?- it’s a too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-by.  But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies” (pg.146).   Along with being a way of staying on the move, the road provides feelings of spontaneity and invincibility for the youth.  Sal says, “If you drop a rose in the Hudson River…think of all the places it journeys by” (pg.9).  On the road, he also expresses, “A hundred and ten miles an hour straight through, an arrow road, sleeping towns, no traffic” (pg.218). 

The institution of state serves as a constant barrier, restricting the freedom of the individuals of the Beat Generation throughout the novel.  For example, Sal and Dean are constantly stopped by the police, which shows that the state interferes with their journey on the road.  They try to escape by being on the road, but the constraining institution is inescapable.  The police stop Sal and Dean on the way to Washington because they are driving on the wrong side of the road.  At one point of the novel, a police pulls out a gun and demands that Dean comes out when him and Marylou are having sex; he also demands to see Sal’s license.  Dean acknowledges the inescapable institution of the state when he says, “Oh they’re always interfering” (pg.155).  The reader also sees that the institution is inescapable when Sal and Dean are constantly looking for money on the road. They try to rebel by stealing, yet ultimately their need for money becomes so important that they turn to family.  For example, they constantly turn to Sal’s aunt for money.  This emphasizes how the institutions support each other, making them that much stronger in limiting the individual.  Overall, the interference of the state shows that society sees the Beat Generation as a threat; it tries to oppress the individual by restraining the socially defined cult-like group. 

Similar to the ways that the state limits the Beat Generation, the institution of family also proves to be a constant threat to their individualism.  Throughout their cyclical journey, Sal and Dean constantly return back home, under the familial roof.  Also, Dean is on a search for his dad, which emphasizes the interference of the institution of family.  Sal says, “My aunt said I was wasting my time hanging around with Dean and his gang” (pg.120); this shows that the family unit looks down upon the rebellious youth.  These examples signify the threat of the family, which is to disown their children.  The parents represent the older generation that is stuck in their past beliefs and are incapable of understanding the Beat Generation’s ideology.  This generation gap furthermore shows the misunderstandings between the parents and their children.  Overall,  throughout the novel, the institution of family serves as an inescapable constraint that limits the freedoms of the individual and shows that the individual is destined to failure.