On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Imagine a sign on the side of the road. In shallow wood-carved letters it reads, "Freedom: 40 Miles." If only it had been that easy. Instead, the quest for freedom was one stretched out over years, and the long-awaited treasure was never found. Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road is the story of many journeys, back and forth across America, and just one; of the pursuit for freedom. In On the Road, Kerouac explores the beat culture through the eyes of two young travelers, who are different in as many ways as they are alike. In a world where countercultures often focus solely on the negative aspects of their own society, the beat culture embraced theirs, were intoxicated by the differences between the people they encountered and the vastness of the landscape. They objectively noted the dark and the light of their evolving country, and relentlessly sought out the freedom they so desired. Through the characters of Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise, Kerouac presents two restless characters, each burdened by his own internal demons. In a whirlwind of traveling, drugs, sex and parties, each man is subconsciously looking for one thing: release. Dean, Sal's "sideburned hero of the snowy west" is longing for his father, a man who's past
They are faced with the sad reality which counteracted the beauty when they encounter tribes of people who inhabit the Mexican countryside, selling crystals. Compared to today's ultra-connected world, detachment was an option; anonymity was achievable. Dean inherited his father's difficulties with raising and keeping family, as he exhibits through his constant indecisiveness and reevaluating of whom he wants to be with, and where he wants to be. They disguised their fears and reservations they did have with spontaneity, by taking silent oaths to themselves and others, which they knew they couldn't keep. " The beat generation was a product of the times. Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty were living lives devoid of outward regret. Sal says that, "It was no longer east-west, but magic south. At the beginning, Sal sees the east and the west as conflicting forces--- the east being stiff, intellectual and cold; the west alive and luminous. Once, Dean had been the confident one, an almost holy being bursting with insight, with excitement, and talent. His views fluctuate with his circumstance, and for Sal, the grass is usually greener on the other coast. Initially, Sal views Dean as the "holy con-man with the shining mind ( 5 ). Sal was the quiet observer, who was lost in comparison to Dean's direction, unintelligible to Dean's western eloquence. And unlike today, America was divided not by McDonalds and Starbucks' but by distinct cultures- changes in traditions and people and landscapes. He was in love with the world, and it had seemed that the world was in love with him.
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Acceptance Essays
