Self-Discovery Theme in On the Road
This is an excerpt from the paper...
A central and even dominant theme in Jack Kerouac's novel, On the Road, is the road trip as a symbolic and practical quest for identity -- a quest that occupies the lives of Sal Paradise (the narrator) and Dean Moriarty (the perpetual road tripper). As an influential member of the "Beat generation" of American writers, Kerouac used what appears to be a semi-autobiographical approach to his theme; Sal Paradise speaks in Kerouac's voice, while Dean Moriarty is said to be illustrative of Neal Cassidy, another Beat figure. This brief report will examine the road trips in the novel as manifestations of a search for self-identity and assess the success or failure of such trips. It will be argued that these trips from one ocean to another and one state of being to another are not fulfilling for Dean, whose fate seems to be linked to constant movement and new experiences. Dean "is the perfect guy for the road because he was actually born on the road" (5). Having been born in transit, Dean spends his adolescent and adult life in transit from one place to another, one woman to another, and one grand vision of the world (and the possible) to another. Dean wants to know things -- things about Nietzsche, about women, about literature, music and about solving "love problems." For Sal Paradise, Dean is a wonderful object of contemplation; more significantly, Sal sees in Dean some of the enthusiasm and youthfulness that he has lost, and wants to share Dean's journey of self-disco
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Sal Dean, Coast Sal, Dean Moriarty, Cassidy Beat, Dean Sal, Conversely Dean, Eisenhower America, San Francisco, Jack Kerouac's, War II, dean moriarty, road trips, sal dean, sal paradise, journeys undertaken, beat generation, trips success,
Approximate Word count = 1190
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Self-Discovery Theme in On the Road
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
