Kerouac, Jack - On the road

On the Road

In his novel, On the Road, Jack Kerouac writes about the unconventional lifestyle of a group of friend, Sal, Dean and Carlo, travelling around the US in a endless pursuit of life and freedom, expressed by transgressive behavior. The feelings, ideas and experiences explored in the novel are expressions of idealistic young people who desire something more than the conformity of a generally prosperous society, and choose an unconventional lifestyle, with love, sex and jazz music.They rebel against mainstream culture.Tensions arise among the characters who are trapped in complex relationship of friendship and love.They can also be sad at times, when the desire for more and more kicks, being exciting activities , gives way to meditationband a sense of futility.Sal, Dean and Carlo move around the whole country and meet peculiar characters in an endless search for identity and meaning.

Jack Kerouac

He was born in 1929 to French-Canadian parents living in a working class suburb of Lowell, Massachusetts. He was brought up as a Catholic, did well at school and was recognized as a promising footballer.He won a football scholarship to Columbia University in New York , but dropped out of Columbia after a row with the football coach.Later his father lost his business, poosibly because of alcohol abuse, and the family moved to New York.After a period in the United States merchants marine, he went back to New York, where he led a bohemian life with the furure representatives of the Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg , William Burroughs and Neal Cassady.On te Road made him famous, but he felt uneasy with his new public image and started drinking.He died in San Francisco in 1969, at the age of 47.

The plot

The novel describes road trips around the US between 1947 and 1950;Sal Paradise, the narrator and the protagonist , is a young Italo-American writer from Paterson, New Jersey, who has just split up with his wife. He meets Dean Moriartyb a reckless young Denver wandering who loves drugs, women and intellectualism, but is also concerned about his father and family life.When Sal meets him, Dean has just come out of jail.Sal and Dean becoome friends and begin three years of restless journeys around the US.They meet Carlo Marx , an intellectual who writes poetry and play jazz.He is Sal and Dean's best friend .They all spend thei time in jazz clubs, looking for kicks while chasing women, drinking, taking drugs and dancing , but also writing and debating important issues.