Jack Kerouac's On The Road

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Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road is a veiled autobiographical account of Kerouac’s rejection of societal values, as told through his alter ego Sal Paradise. Kerouac uses his rejection of these values to observe and remark about the country around him. Kerouac’s novel focuses on a series of cross country adventures that he takes with his friend Dean Moriarty (who is in reality Kerouac’s friend Neil Cassady). Over the course of the novel the duos rejection of societal values is made more and more apparent in all of their actions from the way Sal drinks, to choices in friends, music, and beliefs about integration. At the beginning of the novel it’s New York City in the winter of 1947. The story is told from the first-person point of…show more content…
The relationship between that of Sal and Dean is a brotherly one and shows that Sal identifies with the Dean and all of his madness more than the rest of society. Sal’s drinking is another one of his way to enact his rejection of societal values. Drinking in excess is never an overly socially acceptable thing, and Sal drinks often. Sal goes so far as to prioritize booze over everything else, when asked at one point if he has any money he replies with, “Hell no, maybe enough for a pint of whisky till I get to Denver. What about you?" (Kerouac) This is incredibly telling of Sal as a person, as he claims to have no money yet then immediately says he has money for Whisky. He places his being able to drink over food, shelter, or any other necessities. Sal’s drinking is to the point where the money he has is instantly set aside for booze without a second thought, it’s integrated into him that his money should be spent on alcohol as it’s a part of his life at this point. Alcohol also influences how Sal views people, it’s so integrated into his life that he begins to regard and judge other characters by their drinking as…show more content…
In Mill City while staying with Remi Sal states that Mill City is, “the only community in America where whites and Negroes lived together voluntarily; and that was so, and so wild and joyous place I’ve never seen since” (Kerouac). Here Sal takes rejecting societal values to a whole new level by living in an integrated community. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal in today’s society remembering that the 1950’s were segregated, and neighborhoods divided by race this statement takes on a whole new level of significance. Sal fights the traditional social norm in this situation by accepting integration, and fighting against the standard of voluntary segregation and separation. Sal also goes farther than this by going on to eventually say that he wished he was a, “a Negro, feeling that the best the white world had offered was not enough ecstasy for me, not enough life, joy, kicks, darkness, music, not enough life” (Kerouac). Sal takes rejection of societal values to a whole new level by not even pushing for equality, but instead saying that he wished he African American vs. White in an era was when being white vs black meant a lack of discrimination and racism. In fact Sal’s liking minorities extends to minorities aside from African Americans, he also is a fan of both Native Americans, saying that they’re an intelligent people, not the jokes we
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