A married woman in New York whom Sal wants to marry for awhile. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. The old discourse of the bad sexually independent single sexual woman (McNeil 189) also manifests itself in the novel when Sal rents a hotel room with Terry but subsequently begins getting the foolish paranoiac visions that Teresawas a common little hustler (Kerouac 80). Suddenly I had a vision of Dean, a burning shuddering frightful Angel, palpitating toward me across the road, approaching like a cloud, with enormous speed, pursuing me like the Shrouded Traveler on the plain, bearing down on me. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. . The most important friendship in the novel, though, is that between Dean and Sal. Instead, Dean cares only for himself, and he always has the same battered trunk stuck out from under the bed, ready to fly back to the road (Kerouac 236). Dean leaves Marylou, Camille, and Inez, but always comes back to Sal. Before that Id often dreamed of going West to see the country, always vaguely planning and never taking off. Part 1, Chapters 1-4 Summary and Analysis. When Sal describes Dean as BEAT the root, the soul of Beatific (Kerouac 184), it appears that he sees Deans beatitude as the absence of guilt over sex, over treatment of women, [and] over property (McNeil 191); when he finally says, I realized what a rat he was, it is because of Deans poor treatment of Sal, a fellow man, rather than of any woman (Kerouac 285). But theres a catch. Sal also prioritizes spatial distance over time when he sells his watch for gas money.Now, this all sounds pretty good. Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. This is a metaphor for life and history. He sees sadness everywhere: in people, in places, events, in America as a whole, in Mexico, too, as part of Victors babys soul, something that we are born with and die with, a solitude, an essential inability to connect. Sal does the same for space. Is Kerouac's On the Road a departure from American literature tradition, or does it fall in the tradition of Huck Finn and other picaresque narratives? I looked at him; my eyes were watering with embarrassment and tears. on 50-99 accounts. The novel is a roman clef, with many key figures of the Beat movement, such as William S. Burroughs (Old Bull Lee), Allen Ginsberg (Carlo Marx), and Neal Cassady (Dean Moriarty) represented by characters in the book, including Kerouac himself as the narrator Sal Paradise. On The Road - Term 2. Men and Women on the Move; Dramas of the Road. European Journal of Cultural Studies 3.3 (2000): 403-420. McNeil, Helen. These descriptions of Marylou echo those of other women throughout the novel, including Terry, whose breasts stuck out straight and true (Kerouac 78), and Inez, who Sal calls a big, sexy brunette (Kerouac 232). I looked at him; my eyes were watering with embarrassment and tears. Allen Ginsberg described the Beats as a boy gang, and On the Road clearly echoes this mentality by valorising male friendships and uncommitted sexual relationships above all else (McNeil 178). Sal eventually sees his relationship with Dean as destructive. Nathan Shapiro might be the gloomiest member of Manhattan's finest, but that doesn't stop the dour detective . Dean picked up a young hitchhiker, but the hitchhiker had no money. Layering insult upon insult, female characters in On the Road are also often described disparagingly as whores, and Marylou in particular is described as a whore by Sal on several occasions, such as when he says, I saw what a whore she was (Kerouac 163). She never said a word, leading Dean to comment, theres a real woman for you. Dean had every right to die the sweet deaths of complete love of his Marylou. You see what a bastard he is? said Marylou. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. It is constantly assumed that women should perform domestic duties; and these duties are imposed upon them on occasions such as when Dean decides that the thing to do was to have Marylou make breakfast and sweep the floor (Kerouac 8) and when Babe cook[s] a big breakfast (Kerouac 249) for all of the men. Like Sam and Dean, the characters of On the Road criss-cross the country on a restless search for something neither Sal nor Dean can define - the goal seems to be on the move, and in motion. After all, Sal may part ways with Dean at the end of the novel, but he never stops thinking of him. I saw his huge face over the plains with the mad, bony purpose and the gleaming eyes; I saw his wings; I saw his old jalopy chariot with thousands of sparking flames shooting out from it; I saw the path it burned over the road; it even made its own road and went over the corn, through cities, destroying bridges, drying rivers. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. A friend of Dean's in San Francisco, Slim goes to jazz joints and adds the suffix "orooni" to everything he says. Sal's months of living as a migrant farm worker, picking cotton, are perhaps the best example of such a view in the novel. In On the road (New York: Viking, 1957), Jack Kerouac described an encounter with the pianist, guitarist, and percussionist Slim Gaillard, "a tall, thin Negro with big sad eyes who's always saying 'Right-orooni' and 'How 'bout a little bourbon-arooni.'" "Slim sits down at the piano and hits two notes, two Cs, then two more, then one, then two, and suddenly the big burly bass . These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Big crowds of businessmen, fat businessmen in boots and ten-gallon hats, with their hefty wives in cowgirl attire, bustled and whoopeed on the wooden sidewalks of old Cheyenne; farther down were the long stringy boulevard lights of new downtown Cheyenne, but the celebration was focusing on Oldtown. He has recently divorced his wife and recovered from an illness. This is just an overblown way to say that Sal deals in space, or geography, the same way that Dean deals in time.Dean rushes around, afraid of running out of time, needing to beat time, and most importantly, measuring everything in time. Early in Rebel Without a Cause, Sal Mineo's Plato spots James Dean's Jim in the school hallway, the morning after they've had a chance encounter while being booked at the local . He needs to visit all these cities, to get quickly from one place to another, and he measures everything in distance. Print. And Sal ultimately abandons Dean at the end of the novel for his plans with Remi and Laura. . Elmswood, Victoria. Remi and his girl, Lee Ann, live by the docks in a housing project called Mill City, supposedly the only place in America where blacks and whites voluntarily live in the same . Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. In direct comparison to the males, who support each other and form strong friendships based on adventure and true understanding, female characters are relegated to bit parts and to the role of killjoy. Sometimes it can end up there. (including. . Davis, Lane. On the Road deals with this sense of adventure and exploration in two main ways. A policeman found them sleeping by the car, but didnt seem to mind. Never a harsh word, never a complaint (Kerouac 192). For Dean and Sal this display is nothing they want to be a part of. Sal and Dean often seem more interested in each other than in Marylou, Camille, Lucille, or any other woman. In this essay, I explore Kerouacs portrayal of women in On the Road, using the character of Marylou as a starting point. Throughout the novel, Dean and Sal are mesmerized by the marginalized peoples of the Americas, specifically through African-American culture and Mexican culture. In addition to Sals vast network of friends, travel buddies, and acquaintances, Kerouac explores some especially close, intense friendships. In the novel, the road is figured as a male space, and the road trip experience becomes a male identity project which engages in a culturally dependent spatial othering of women (Enevold 405). More books than SparkNotes. Throughout Sal's wanderings, she sends him money. While they are at a party, Dean tries convincing Sal to sleep with his girlfriend while they are at a party. This kind of individualist subversion is one of the themes of the novel, and Sal can sense that something is being lost by this destruction. Like most people who actually read On the Road, I did so at an impressionable age.Though I grew up in the 1980s rather than the 1950s, my late-teenage self responded immediately to Kerouac's visionary prose, the hero Dean Moriarty's epic restlessness, and the fundamentally spiritual urge the proto-Beats had to see more, be more, do more. This character, a New York City poet, is one of Sal's many friends. In the othered role imposed upon the women, they are shown as a negative influence on the men; for example, Galatea is depicted as a nuisance who kept complaining that she was tired and wanted to sleep in a motel (Kerouac 107), while Dean complains that Camille is getting worse and worse man, she cries and makes tantrums, wont let me out to see Slim Gaillard, gets mad every time Im late (Kerouac 172). Sal always notices people. What 'On The Road' does successfully is present the dilemma of sticking to a life of stability or putting that aside to explore. Through their travels they always return to the white American culture that they came from, finding food and shelter when they need it. The American West has long been a part of American literature and folklore. That wasnt it. Not much, although he spends a good deal of time seeking paradise. After refueling there, Sal, Dean, and Stan begin another ascent. Dean will leave you out in the cold any time its in his interest.. Marylou and I stood dumbly in the street and watched him drive away. Sal is a traveler through the American West, while Dean is the embodiment, meaning that Sal is simply a biographer who documents Dean's freewheeling energy and the regions they explore. This is a luxury the rest of the farm workers do not have. . To sum up Diane's life, she had the heart of a caregiver, both at work and at home. You see what a bastard he is? said Marylou. Few of the female characters are referred to by name, with various women being referred to as simply a beautiful young black chick (Kerouac 206) and a gorgeous country girl (Kerouac 228), highlighting the idea of women as mere sex objects. for a customized plan. Sal confronts this reality as he visits the Wild West Festival in Cheyenne, a tourist attraction that can only simulate the real Wild West. In the morning, the other guards (including one who had worked at Alcatraz), told, began to fall apart with Remi and Lee Ann. for a group? She refused. Sal envies the madness in others, but is unable to replicate it in himself unless he is under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or near death due to starvation. Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more! As for Dean, Sal is amazingly not judgmental of the not-so-nice things Dean does. I realized these were all the snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered, stabilized-within-the-photo lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life, never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives, our actual night, the hell of it, the senseless nightmare road. Wed love to have you back! (Of course, Mexican culture itself is not marginalized in Mexico, but it seems to yield such a feeling among these outsiders, who see just a few slices and subcultures.) The concept of the ideal woman as domesticated and submissive is exemplified when Sal and Dean meet the sweetest woman in the world, and Sal notes, she never asked Walter where hed been, what time it was, nothing. His main romantic connections are Camille, his wife and mother of his two children, and Mary Lou, a 16-year-old girl who accompanies him and Sal on their cross-country journey. 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