Term Paper (Meagan Adler)

In presenting On the Road as an endless, cyclical journey that spans throughout the country, Kerouac portrays Dean and Sal as members of the rebellious Beat Generation, attempting to escape the inescapable and restraining societal institutions that resist the purpose of the individual.  The novel signifies the purpose of the societal institutions of church, family and state and how they are implemented to restrain the individual.  It furthermore underscores the overall idea that the Beat Generation wanted to avoid these conformist values and shift society to the liberal left.  Through Dean and Sal, the reader sees that the Generation rejects church, state, and family in the search to find themselves as individuals.  These characters are constantly on the road because they fear the permanency of settling down, for they feel as if they will be forever trapped by these institutions.  The reader sees that the Beat Generation has a burning desire to escape these institutions because they fail the individual; they restrict the “young, wild, and free” mentality that the youth crave.  Although the idea of escaping the institutions is liberating, as Dean and Sal constantly end their cyclical journey back home, under the societal institution of family, the reader sees that these institutions are ultimately inescapable.  Everyone inevitably fails as an individual because these institutions contradict each other.  By doing what people think they are supposed to do they are destined to failure.  As Sal and Dean aimlessly wander throughout the nation on their cyclical journey, Jack Kerouac underscores the Kafkaesque idea that the individual is destined to fail as he is inevitably forced to conform to the socially accepted member of the flock in a restrictive country where societal institutions are ultimately inescapable.

Kerouac utilizes Dean’s character as a leader of the Beat Generation that guides the youth out of society, where they can seek to become individuals and escape the institutions.  In rejecting the conformist societal values, Dean is seen as a hipster of society; as Sal says, “They (Carlo and Dean) were like the man with the dungeon stone and the gloom, rising from the underground, the sordid hipsters of America, a new beat generation that I was slowly joining” (48).   This generation is looked down upon by society, as it is seen as a cult that rejects socially accepted values.  In resembling the structure of a cult, Dean has a flock of youthful Americans that follow him on the road and try to escape the societal institutions.  Sal proves to be one of these followers that are enamored by Dean’s rebelliousness; he says,  “I didn’t want to interfere, I just wanted to follow” (123). 

The road is a significant component of the Beat Generation’s journey to become individuals, for it is a way of staying on the move.  It gives the Generation a chance to explore and find themselves.  The Beat Generation sees the road as their live, as Sal says, “But no matter, the road is life” (200).  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” (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” (9).  On the road, he also expresses, “A hundred and ten miles an hour straight through, an arrow road, sleeping towns, no traffic” (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” (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” (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.  They see the generation as a cult-like group that disrupts the progression of society.  Its refusal to conform ultimately serves as a threat to society.  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.

In addition to the ways in which family and state interfere with the freedom of the individual, throughout On the Road, it is evident that church also interferes with it.  The institution of church implements itself within the Beat culture; for example, Sal sees Dean as his God.  Sal expresses, ““Dean completely amazed me… He passed me like the wind.  As we ran I had a mad vision of Dean running through all of life just like that- his bony face outthrust to life, his arms pumping, his brown sweating…” (143).  Here, the reader is exposed to Sal’s admiration for Dean that makes Dean become Sal’s role model throughout his journey on the road.  Sal also calls Dean the “HOLY GOOF” (183) and “the holy-con man” (202), which shows that the institution of religion has interfered with the true freedom of the individual.  Sal expresses, “In myriad pricklings of heavenly radiation I had to struggle to see Dean’s figure, and he looked like God” (272).  This illusion that Sal has throughout the novel emphasizes the institution of religion that limits his own freedom as an individual.  Lastly, he says, ““As we crossed the Colorado-Utah border I saw God in the sky in the form of huge gold sunburning clouds above the desert that seemed to point a finger at me and say, ‘Pass here and go on, you’re on the road to heaven’” (171).  This furthermore emphasizes that the Beat Generation resembles a religious group that captures Sal.  This indicates that Sal cannot be an individual, for he has conformed the almost religious culture of the Beat Generation.  He explicitly states that he wants to follow and that he does not want to lead; this sacrifices the true purpose of the individual.

Throughout Sal and Dean’s cyclical journey, the reader is able to see how society prevents the growth of the individual through the fringes of society.  The fringes are the poor, homeless, and lowlifes of society that are meant to threaten the individual and draw him/her back in.  Whenever Sal sees the fringes of society he turns back home.  This shows that his journey to become an individual ultimately fails because society wins.  Society purposefully allows these people on the fringes to exist to pull the rebellious people back. Sal dejectedly expresses, “I realized I was beginning to cross and recross towns in America as though I were a traveling salesman- raggedy travelings, bad stock, rotten beans in the bottom of my bag of tricks, nobody buying” (234).  Here, he becomes dissatisfied and discouraged on his journey and wants to go back to society.  Also, he has a conversation with Dean in which Sal says, “You mean we’ll end up old bums?” and Dean responds, “Why not man? Of course we will if we want to, and all that.  There’s no harm ending that way.  You spend your whole life of noninterference with the wished of others, including politicians and the rich, and nobody bothers you, and you cut along and make your own way’” (239).  Here, the reader sees that Sal does not have the capability of being a true individual because he is affected by the thought of being a socially defined lowlife, while Dean is enamored by the idea.  He likes the thought of living a life where he can be a free individual and not be bothered with the interferences of church, state or family.  As Sal reflects upon his adventures with the “foolish gang” (155), he says, “With frantic Dean I was rushing through the world without a chance to see it” (194).  Sal becomes discouraged with escaping the societal institutions and becomes discouraged with his journey on the road.  Sal creates the image of him and Dean reaching the fringes when he expresses, “We wandered around, carrying our bundles of rags in the narrow romantic streets.  Everybody looked like a broken-down movie extra, a withered starlet; disenchanted stunt-men, midget auto-racers, poignant California characters with their end-of-the-continent sadness, handsome, decadent, Casanova-ish men, puffy-eyed motel blondes, hustlers, pimps, whores, masseurs, bellhops- a lemon lot, and how’s a man going to make a living with a gang like that?” (159).   Here, we can picture Sal and Dean as societal lowlifes as they aimlessly continue on their journey.  Sal begins to see the idea that he cannot forever wander throughout the nation; as Carlo Marx says, “The balloon won’t sustain you much longer.  And not only that, but it’s an abstract balloon.  You’ll all go flying to the West Coast and come staggering back in search of your stone” (121). 

Overall, although the Beat Generation fails to become complete individuals, it does shift society to the liberal left.  The mass of people that are part of the generation force society to shift because if it does not then it will loose its future workforce.  If they refuse to shift then this workforce forever abandons society and society has no future.  Through Kerouac’s brilliant portrayal of the Beat Generation throughout the novel we are able to see how the institutions purposefully restrict the individual as they promote conformity as opposed to individuality.  They shun anyone that refuses to conform and try to pull them back in because they are a threat to society.  As underscored in the novel, “‘Bureaucracy!’ says Old Bull; he sits with Kafka on is lap, the lamp burns above him, he snuffs, thfump.  His old house creaks.  And the Montana log rolls by in the black river of the night.  ‘’Tain’t nothing but bureaucracy. And unions! Especially unions!’” (138). Whether it is through Dean and Sal’s constant need for money, Dean’s search for his father, or the religion of the Beat Generation, Kerouac shows us that society fails the individual.  

Works Cited

Kerouac, Jack. On the road. New York, NY, U.S.A.: Penguin Books, 1999. Print.