Jack Kerouac’s On The Road - The Impact of Dean on Sals...

Impact of Dean on Sals Identity in On the Road In part I, chapter 3 of Jack Kerouacs On the Road, Sal arrives at Des Moines and checks into a cheap, dirty motel room. He sleeps all day and awakens in time to witness the setting sun. As he looks around the unfamiliar room, Sal realizes that he doesnt understand his own identity. Identity lost, he states I was half way across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future. He has lost the calming influence of his aunt, and Dean and partners are not around to feed his wild streak. The only clues to his identity are to be found in the strange motel room. This appeal to emotion gives the reader personal hints to identify with. Many†¦show more content†¦Without exception, it changes every time he encounters new circumstances and surroundings. On the way to visit Old Bull Lee in New Orleans during part II, chapter 6, Sal is driving while Dean and Mary Lou are asleep. He is alone with time to think to himself, and he does not know what he is doing or where he is going. The style of the passage intrigues the reader; All alone in the night I had my own thoughts and held the car to the white line in the holy road. Dean is no longer mentally present to lead him and feed his identity. Sal has no one to show him the way and he is forced to cling to his physical surroundings for comfort. His entire existence centers around following the straight line in the road. In chapter 7, after the stay with Old Bull, Dean is ready to leave and hit the road again. Sal is compelled to go with him although he would really like to stay with Bull awhile. Again, Kerouac uses emotion to move the reader, because most people h ave been torn between following one of two friends at some point. In chapter 8 of part two, Dean steals gas and oil as Sal runs into the station and takes bread and cheese while the owners are in back eating dinner. Sal seems to be adapting his personality to that of Deans. Earlier in the novel, when Montana Slim asks him to steal from strangers in alley ways, Sal doesnt seem to want anything to do with it. This schizophrenic behavior appears throughout the book, prohibiting one from understanding who Sal isShow MoreRelated Impact of Dean on Sals Identity in Jack Kerouac’s On The Road901 Words   |  4 PagesThe Impact of Dean on Sals Identity  in  On the Road On The Road begins with the protagonist, Sal, (representative of author Jack Kerouac), being overwhelmed by feelings of confusion and uncertainty regarding his personal identity. He then meets ‘Dean Moriarty’, an eccentric character who rejects societal values and ‘norms’. Sal is absorbed with and entranced by Dean, perceiving him as almost ‘superhuman’, and decides to follow him across the country. A passive character, Sal soon becomes dependentRead MoreEssay on Jack Kerouacs On the Road and Allen Ginsbergs Howl3843 Words   |  16 PagesJack Kerouacs On the Road and Allen Ginsbergs Howl Works Cited It was a 1951 TIME cover story, which dubbed the Beats a ‘Silent Generation, ’ that led to Allen Ginsberg’s retort in his poem ‘America,’ in which he vocalises a frustration at this loss of self- importance. The fifties Beat Generation, notably through Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl#61482; as will here be discussed, fought to revitalise individuality and revolutionise their censored society which seemed toRead MoreThe Idea Of Conformity Vs. Non Conformity Emerges1601 Words   |  7 Pagesself-discovery, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951 illustrates the journey of him and his friend’s across America in the post war beat generation, as they counteracted the societal norms of that time in order to discover his own true individuality. Similarly, individuality emerges strongly in the essay Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson written in 1841 to portray the necessity of relying on oneself for kno wledge and guidance in order to re- discover a true identity. Contrasting, the