On The Road- A Success? :: essays research papers

"On the route"- a success?So much open space- mile after mile of cities, towns, Waffle Houses, and a whole voltaic pile of whatnot. Theres such a feeling of freedom on a road trip, just sticking your head out the window to let the breeze of both place that passes, cover your face. So much is taken in, yet so little, you find its hard to stop to sleep or feed yourself. Youre driving to force somewhere, but that somewhere doesnt matter, all that matters is driving and letting the wind take you. Friends, yell at attractive people as you pass, Or fighting with family, argument about whos going to eat the last piece of string cheese. Its all about the moment and what you choose to do with it. "On the Road", a story written by Jack Kerouac, contains many such road trips during a time in life called the beat generation. Its an extraordinary tale of two modern men searching for things they dont even realize until they get to their destinations and when they reach those destinations all they sine qua non to do is drive.In first reading "On the Road", one might find it a touch absurd and slightly confusing. The writing goes in all directions and who is this Dean guy any counselling? Upon reading the impudent a second time theres this fascination with all the characters and their actions. The tale unfolds with Salvatore Paradise, called simply Sal. Sal is a writer, in his thirties, living in New Jersey (his whole life). He becomes obsessed (it seems) with a guy named Dean Moriarty. Dean is an interesting character- a con and a womanizer he still becomes a guy that readers would want to be pals with. Dean and Sal have an interesting relationship, but for the most part they seem like good friends. After Dean moves out of Sals apartment (after conning his office into it), he moves around, getting married and not really settling down. So this leads to Sal, out of sheer boredom, to pack some things and head out on a road trip, with no car and fifty bucks in his pocket. Off he goes on a wild adventure, coming to many stops along his way to California. From there the story gets kind of repetitive, with Sal going back and forth across the country and Dean still up to all his craziness.