On The Road By Jack Kerouac Sara Levinson Brooke Norling Kyle Stewart Melinda Gravitt Ben Stillinger

Book Summary

Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty = thrill-seeking travelers back and forth across the United States based on Kerouac’s own life in the late 1940’s heavily influenced by his friend Neal Cassady inspired by real-life events. Dean is a reform school escapee who specializes in stealing cars and acts as Sal’s mentor. automobile = the chariot, always keeping Sal and Dean on the road

Dean’s madness is apparent throughout the novel, as is his ability to do whatever he pleases. drug of choice = liquor rural wilderness, sleepy small towns, urban jungles, and endless deserts Women Dean treats everyone terribly Sal, however, always forgives Dean, seeing him as a god-like hero, no matter what he does.

Sal, the main character

Sal’s roll His full name is Salvatore Paradise. He is the first person narrator of the book. He travels from coast to coast hitchhiking and driving with Dean. He and Dean both learn and thrive off each others different skills. "I began to learn from him as much as he learned from me." Part 1, Chapter 1, page 7

Qualities He is very restless and is always on the move. He always has to have something new and exiting. He gets board easily, and towns that he thought would be fun quickly looses there “kick” so he wants to move on a lot.

Sal is Jack Kerouac The actual journal written by Kerouac is almost identical to On The Road.

Dean Neal Cassady Main protagonist Sexually active, many lovers 3 wives: Marylou, Camille, and Inez Father of 2 children Seen as the epic hero of the novel Spent time in prison Obsession with the road Free spirited, reluctant to tie his spirit to social demands Self-centered, little respect for other characters Doesn’t put forth much effort towards his marriages In search of his father throughout the novel

Carlo Allen Ginsberg Sal’s closest friend in the city Fixated with Dean in the beginning of the novel Friends look up to him Writes fantastic and often mad poetry Plays jazz Often found in basement apartments in either Denver or New York Matures throughout the novel Sensual and energetic Presents advice to Sal and Dean, represents a replacement in the absence of paternity

Marylou Carolyn Cassady Dean’s first wife Left by Dean for Camille (Dean’s second wife) Dean comes back for her in Denver after leaving San Francisco For a while, it seems as though Sal is Marylou’s “man” Eventually apparent that she is only interested in Dean Becomes a prostitute for awhile Ends up marrying a used-car salesman

Camille First Dean’s mistress, then becomes his second wife Mother of Dean’s two children The woman with whom Dean cheated on Marylou! Live together in San Francisco Camille becomes very emotional and volatile near the end of the relationship Dean leaves her for Inez (Dean’s third wife)

Ed William S. Burroughs Friend of Sal and Dean Marries Galatea so that she will come with them across the country and pay for the trip He ditches her at a hotel and on many other repeated occasions Ultimately returns to her every time

Terry Sal meets Terry on a bus ride and they fall in love From a family of Mexican migrant workers and is separated from her husband who beats her Sal and Terry live together for several months They finally part and never see each other again  Sal often thinks back to his time with Terry and greatly misses her

About the author, Jack Kerouac

Early Life Born on March 12, 1922 with the name Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac, in Lowell, Massachusetts. His family was French-Canadian and his parents were Leo-Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, they were natives of the province of Quebec in Canada.

Early Life He didn't start to learn English until he was six because at home, he and his family spoke Quebec French. At an early age he was traumatized by the death of his elder brother Gérard, this event later prompted him to write the book Visions of Gerard.

Education His athletic abilities led him to become a star on his local football team. He later earned football scholarships to Boston College and Columbia University. He went to Columbia University after spending the scholarship's required year at Horace Mann School. He broke a leg playing football during his freshman year at Columbia. This injury made it difficult to fulfill his scholarship obligations. He could not continue at Columbia without the scholarship, so he went to live with a previous girlfriend Edie Parker in New York.

Military Life He joined the Merchant navy in 1942 and in 1943 joined the United States Navy. He was discharged during World War II on psychiatric grounds because he was of "indifferent disposition". In between his sea voyages, he stayed in New York City with friends from Fordham University in The Bronx. After he was discharged from the U.S. Navy in He lived with his parents in the Ozone Park neighborhood in New York City.

City Life In New York Kerouac met the people with whom he journeyed around the world, they were also the subjects of many of his novels. Jack and his friends were part of the so-called Beat Generation, including Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, John Clellon Holmes, Herbert Huncke, and William S. Burroughs. The Beat Generation was a group of American writers who came to New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They were an underground, anti-conformist youth group. This was all part of the counter culture of the fifties and sixties.

Writing He wrote constantly but could not find a publisher for his novel for six years. Using previous drafts titled "The Beat Generation" and "Gone On The Road", he wrote what is now known as On the Road in April, It took him 3 weeks to complete the entire book. Publishers rejected the book because of its experimental writing style and sympathetic tone towards minorities and marginalized social groups of the United States in the 1950s. In 1957, Viking Press purchased the novel, had to make major revisions.

After the book In July 1957, He moved to a small house on Clouser Ave. in the College Park section of Orlando, Florida. He was waiting for the release of On the Road. A few weeks later, the review appears in the New York Times saying that Kerouac was the voice of a new generation. He was hailed as a major American writer, and as the voice of the Beat Generation.

Death He died on October 21, 1969 at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. His death, at the age of 47, resulted from an internal hemorrhage caused by cirrhosis of the liver. The major cause of the illness was a life of heavy drinking. At the time he was living with his third wife Stella, and his mother Gabrielle. He was buried in his home town of Lowell.

Kerouac Style in On the Road

Colloquialism “Jalopy” (p. 1)- cheap car circa 1950 “Cold-Water Pad” (p.1)- cheap apartment where there is no hot water “Dingledodies” (p. 5)- idiots “Ball that Jack” (p. 17)- drive in a hurry, pedal to the metal

Description Switches On Road and Flying: When Sal is on the road he is following the will of others like Dean, and caught up in the energy vs. Paying Attention: When Sal pays attention and tries to find himself and connections in places visited

OR- More simple and brief like Hemingway “Humpy in the middle, with soft shoulders and a ditch on both sides about four feet deep” (p. 25) Attention- Poetic prose like Fitzgerald “Immense vistas of plains beyond every sad street…” (p. 25)

OR- “You never saw a driving fool like that. He made Tracy in no time.” (p. 80) Attention- “A grapy dusk…sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.” (p. 80)

Allusion “Grim as Job” (p. 29)- Biblical reference, makes character’s endeavor more significant and personal “As W.C. Fields said, ‘Fraught with eminent peril’ and “Strange, ragged W.C. Fields saintliness of his later days” (p. 40, 121)- Fields, or his characters, were a contradictory men, egotistical, chasing the wrong women, comedic who never defined as funny, and a charming drunks. Connects to Dean’s wind aspects and mood swings. Fields was ID’d as his characters though he himself was not all those things. Dean is as misunderstood- though he is wild, that is not all of his personality.

Rhythm Also famous for a jazz-style rhythm in writing, using dashes to replace breaths of a conversation. “Ah, that’s it- that’s it- Dostioffski.” “Since Denver, Sal, a lot of things- oh the things- I’ve thought and thought.”

Connections to other Authors

Fitzgerald’s Rain Gatsby- “A huge black knotted tree, whose massed leaves made a fabric against the rain.” This is the turning point in the book, when Gatsby meets Daisy for tea at Nick’s house. OTR- “The rain came down in buckets…I walked into the drizzle…that night it started raining…the rain drummed on the roof.” Kerouac uses raining spells as a transition from different places.

Hemingway Sentences Like Hemingway in TSAR, Kerouac uses short sentences to quickly and efficiently covey his point. OTR- “So I stayed another day. It was Sunday. It was a a beautiful day; the sun turned red at three.” TSAR- “They expected their money the next day. We arranged to meet them in Pamplona. They would go directly to San Sebastian and take a train from there. We would all meet at the Montoya…”

Hemingway/Fitzgerald Description As with sentence form, Kerouac varies his descriptions of people, depending on their common ground to Sal. Dean- “ A young Gene Autry…sideburned hero of the snowy west… Marylou- “Hair like a sea of golden tresses…smoky blue country eyes…longbodied emaciated Modigliani surrealist woman” Dean is a radical element to Sal, but a magnet in the same way Nick is attracted to Gatsby Marylou is Dean’s sometime girlfriend, and represents taking apiece of the unknown and trying to make it part of yourself, as Sal has a fleeting romance with Marylou

Modern Man In TSAR, Gatsby, and OTR, the main characters represent the modern man- reserved from judgment, impotent, and drawn to the radicals of society. Sal is drawn to Dean, Nick to Gatsby, and Jake to Brett. All three realize the meaningless of the lives they lead and search for meaning in life, a goal. However, they discover that their companions define their personalities. In following the radicals, all have become expatriates of a sort from American society. Some are in America leading empty lives, others abroad.

The Beat Generation The phrase "Beat Generation" was invented by Jack Kerouac in The ‘beatness’ Kerouac was describing were not unintelligent or undisciplined men. They were ‘beat’ because they didn't believe in straight jobs and had to struggle to survive on their own.

The term 'beat' has a second meaning: 'beatific' or sacred and holy. Being a Catholic, Kerouac explained that by describing his generation as ‘beat’ he was trying to emphasize the secret holiness of the downtrodden (Dean). This is generally the most central theme in Kerouac's work.

While 'Beat' described hitchhikers, the homeless and exhausted proletarians, the term 'Hip' came from 'Hipster,' which referred to the fancy-dressing, drug dealers and alcoholic sex-fiend characters that hung around Times Square at night looking ‘hip’. The ‘hipsters’ were the beats in the city, and the ‘beatniks’ were hobos in the country. ‘Hipsters’ turned into ‘Hippies’, while ‘Beats’ turned into ‘Beatniks’.

The Original Beat Writers The Beat Generation in literature was small, the original core group consisted of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs, who met in uptown Manhattan in the 1940's and are all depicted as characters in On The Road. The original Beat writers influenced many alienated young people to gather in San Francisco. They acquired the name “Beatniks,” derived from the ‘beats’ and the Russian space invention Sputnik.

Starting point = New York City, New York Patterson, New Jersey (Sal’s residence) Chicago, Illinois Davenport, Iowa Des Moines Cheyenne, Oklahoma Longmont, Colorado Denver, Colorado San Francisco, California Los Angeles, California Sabinal, California Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Testament, Virginia Patterson, New Jersey New Orleans, Louisiana El Paso, Texas Tucson, Arizona Bakersfield, California San Francisco, California Denver, Colorado San Francisco, California Denver,Colorado Chicago, Illinois Detroit, Michigan New York City, New York Denver, Colorado San Antonio, Texas Sabinas Hidalgo, Mexico Gregoria, Mexico Sierra Madre Mountain Peak, Mexico Mexico City, Mexico New York City, New York San Francisco, California Locations

The longest highway in the US of A!

Bebop Jazz was a style that showed more emotion. This music served as an outlet for Kerouac and Sal and is also a favorite music of the beatniks.

symbolizes an escape from society

After leaving the parties in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Sal is exposed to the more relaxing atmosphere of Longmont, Colorado.

A town full of commotion including Dean’s numerous sexual partners.

Furthest point west and at the furthest tip of his journey. Feels like he is at the end of the continent

Religious connotation

Incorporating the rest of the world into their life and lifestyle. Usually, the group does not interact with their surroundings.

Driving naked through Louisiana and Texas

The only time they do interact with the rest of the world is when they are in need of something.

In Mexico, Sal starts to recognize reality

hey Jack Kerouac I think of your mother and the tears she cried, they were criedfor none other than her little boy lost in our little world that hated and that dared to drag him down her little boy courageous criedfor none other

who chose his words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts they all spoke through you

hey Jack now for the tricky part when you were the brightest star who were the shadows? of the San Francisco beat boys you were the favorite now they sit and rattle their bones and think of their blood stoned daysSan Francisco beat boys

you chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood the hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts in Chinatown howling at night

Allen babyAllen baby, why so jaded have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded? Billy, what a saint they've made you just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls' DayAll Souls' Day

you chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood cool junk booting madmen, street minded girls in Harlem howling at nightHarlem

what a tear stained shock of the world you've gone away without saying saying goodbye... saying goodbye

hey Jack Kerouac I think of your mother and the tears she cried, they were criedfor none other than her little boy lost in our little world that hated and that dared to drag him down her little boy courageous criedfor none other

who chose his words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts they all spoke through you

hey Jack now for the tricky part when you were the brightest star who were the shadows? of the San Francisco beat boys you were the favorite now they sit and rattle their bones and think of their blood stoned daysSan Francisco beat boys

you chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood the hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts in Chinatown howling at night

Allen babyAllen baby, why so jaded have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded? Billy, what a saint they've made you just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls' DayAll Souls' Day

you chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood cool junk booting madmen, street minded girls in Harlem howling at nightHarlem

what a tear stained shock of the world you've gone away without saying saying goodbye... saying goodbye

Allen Ginsberg – Kerouac’s contemporary author and friend (both erotic and agamous)

San Francisco beat boys – describes the beatniks written about in Kerouac’s first book of poems : San Francisco Blues (1954)

Jack Kerouac’s brother, Gerard, died at an early age and when Kerouac was four. He wrote a novel about his short childhood spent with his brother called Visions of Gerard. After his death, Kerouac lived in his deceased brother’s shadow.

“I’m not a beatnik; I’m a Catholic!”

Kerouac’s death, caused by cirrhosis of the liver (resulting from excessive drinking) was unanticipated.

First time musicians improvised (bebop) Connotation of freedom Minton's Playhouse – birthplace of bop Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge & Teddy Hill