The last trip is from New York to Denver and to Mexico. Sal takes off for Denver by himself and Dean finds him there. They go off for one last wonderful ride down to Mexico, where they spend a riotous night in a village. Sal ends up getting extremely sick, but Dean leaves him at that moment, rushing off on impulse to marry a new girlfriend in New York.
The whole story ends in New York. Sal is going to attend a concert with Remi Bencoeur and his girlfriend. Actually, he has strong impulses to be with Dean, but others do not like Dean. So, Sal drives off with his other friends, only waving to Dean from the car window.
3. 2 Main characters reflecting philosophy of Beat Generation in On the Road
Whether it is the masterpiece of a giant, or it is just a maiden work of a fledging writer, characters in stories are polished and refined once and again. In On the Road, each character is a mirror of the spirit of Beat Generation. No matter it is Sal Paradise who is said to be the model of Jack Kerouac himself in real life, or it is Remi Boncoeur, an old friend of Sal’s from prep school, who a petty thief and gambler, constantly in debt but extravagant and sometimes gallant and generous, representing the lower class, or even Terry, a pretty Mexican girl with whom Sal spends fifteen days in California, just a minor one in the society, they are all the bricks sharing shining of the whole skyscraper of the masterpiece.
3. 2. 1 Sal Paradise
Sal Paradise is the narrator in On the Road. He, an Italian-American youth living in New Jersey with his aunt, is an uninspired writer working on a book who follows and accompanies a friend’s friend, Dean Moriarty. Dean, a reckless Denver vagrant, together with Sal, goes on his journey across America and describes his trips with and without Dean in search of kicks.
Sal’s desperation of life is the base of the whole novel. He is a representative of the middle class in America. But for Sal, his social status goes with the wind as Dean appears. Moreover, in spite of the essence of the modern life, family, marriage and education are overabundant and trivial. He follows Dean and joins everything Dean does, which embodies that Sal sneers down the traditional obedience, has hatred of the confinement of his social status and desires freedom and revolution. However, such rebellion is contradictory. The villa tic life on the road and the sweet love are all unable to attack Sal who bears the entire burden accumulated for years in the mind. And returning home is his regression to the middle class and to the normal life. So he says, at the end of the first trip full of ardor, “I was going home in October. Everyone goes home in October.” [8] On the road of Denver, Sal realizes the foremost difference between him and Dean who is the representative of the lower class —“All my life I'd had white ambitions; that was why I'd abandoned a good woman like Terry in the San Joaquin Valley I passed the dark porches of Mexican and Negro homes.” [8] Sal’s hesitation and contradiction is just the mirror for Kerouac’s bewilderment at the middle class and the philosophy of the Beat Generation.
3. 2. 2 Dean Moriarty
Dean Moriarty is doubtless the most significant character in On the Road, who is Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassady in reality. Dean grows up in Colorado with a bum for a father for whom he searches on many occasions. He never depresses, although his family is very poor and he suffers much in the cruel life. He has a tag “grasp life”. And his debauch is reflected in another tag “mad” often slipped from his mouth. But as for Dean and other beats, it is only this derogatory word that can expressively write out the beats’ view towards life, for “the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time.” [8] Some argue on the reality with what they read in the books and those they take for granted as some political reasons. But Dean surfs in the real life which is nightmare. He lies because he wishes too much and all his misdeeds are sneered. But this is the explosion of emotion, when the American joys are positive for life.
Dean realizes every black corner of the inhumanity in American present systems, which is the most “frightful” aspect of Dean and his friends. Whether in Denver or New York, in their eyes, the wide America is just a holy land at sixes and sevens. Life, for him, is like deserted wasteland. He abides by nothing of the traditions. Behaving wildly, he distains everything. But he is unable to improve the freaky situation. Even he does not own any impulsion or courage. It is contradict, but it is the best portrait of the Beat Generation and of the youth at that time.
4 On the Road under culture of Beat Generation and experiences of Jack Kerouac
As the leading of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac on one hand, embodied the general discontent with society in his literary creation, on the other hand, owned much to his personal disposition and individual experiences. And from On the Road, the most powerful magnum opus of Beat Generation, we can contact every corner of Beat Generation. So, beyond question, the study of the relations among Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac and On the Road is meritorious.转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net
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