"On the Road"- a success?
So much open space- mile after mile of cities, towns, Waffle Houses, and a whole lot of whatnot. There's such a feeling of freedom on a road trip, just sticking your head out the window to let the breeze of every place that passes, cover your face. So much is taken in, yet so little, you find it's hard to stop to sleep or feed yourself. You're driving to get somewhere, but that somewhere doesn't matter, all that matters is driving and letting the wind take you. Friends, yell at attractive people as you pass, Or fighting with family, arguing about who's going to eat the last piece of string cheese. It's all about the moment and what you choose to do with it. "On the Road", a novel written by Jack Kerouac, contains many such road trips during a time in life called: the beat generation. It's an extraordinary tale of two young men searching for things they don't even realize until they get to their destinations; and when they reach those destinations all they want to do is drive….
In first reading "On the Road", one might find it a touch absurd and slightly confusing. The writing goes in all directions and who is this Dean guy anyway? Upon reading the novel a second time there's this fascination with all the characters and their actions. The tale unfolds with Salvatore Paradise, called simply: Sal. Sal is a writer, in his thirties, living in New Jersey (his whole life). He becomes obsessed (it seems) with a guy named Dean Moriarty. Dean is an interesting character- a con and a womanizer; he still becomes a guy that readers would want to be pals with. Dean and Sal have an interesting relationship, but for the most part they seem like good friends. After Dean moves out of Sals apartment (after conning his way into it), he moves around, getting married and not really settling down. So this leads to Sal, out of sheer boredom, to pack some things and head out on a road trip, with no car and fifty bucks in his pocket. Off he goes on a wild adventure, coming to many stops along his way to California. From there the story gets kind of repetitive, with Sal going back and forth across the country and Dean still up to all his craziness.
Gary describes what he does when his parents leave to work, background on his house, and designation on the Buddha that his uncle had brought back from the Korean War. In the quote on page 4, Gary Soto relates the busy street of Van Ness with phrases like “bluish with diesels and large sedans,” and he explains it as the Buddha is actually alive and listening Gary talk to him. This clearly helps visualize how the avenue is looking like in my mind as if the mind were the real street. Also, the metaphor that he uses in “the grind of gears hurting the air” seems like the real gears hurting the air, and this authorizes the reader to focus more on the settings by how he describes in the land of Fresno, his hometown. Moreover, he gives the meaning to the readers that how diesels and large sedans hurt the environment on the street that he lived on.The setting can really be critical to the story by changing the rhythm and how it will affect the story later
Harrison Scott Key, who was published in Best Travel Writing 2014, wrote about his travels on one of America’s infamous modes of transportation, the Greyhound Bus. In “Fifty Shades of Greyhound”, Key begins his memoir by recalling the first time he had ever ridden on a greyhound. He wanted to go see West Yellowstone, Montana and despite his friends questioning his sanity and his mother believing that he will die, he left. The narrator returned several days later, promising his mother he would never do anything like that again, eighteen years later he broke that promise. He begins his essay in a Greyhound station in Savannah.
Could you imagine traveling the United States in just your specially made camper and the only company you have is your pet? John Steinbeck, the author of "Travels with Charley" wrote about his 1960's road trip about visiting multiple states. "What are Americans like today?"; that was the question that started his journey. His travels began in Long Island, New York, then he followed the outer border of the United States; from Maine to the Northwest. After he traveled to the Pacific Northwest, he went to Salinas Valley in California then across Texas, and through the Deep South. Finally after that 10,000 mile journey, he made is back safe and sound to New York.This rough and long trip included: meeting new people, exploring, and visiting different states.
Chris McCandless’s decision to uproot his life and hitchhike to Alaska has encouraged other young adults to chase their dreams. Neal Karlinksy illustrates the love Chris had for nature in the passage, “He was intoxicated by the nature and the idea of a great Alasican adventure-to survive in the bush totally alone.” This passage shows appreciation for the significance of following ones dreams. Even with all that Chris had accomplished he knew that something was missing and this resonated deeply in his soul. It is refreshing to discover that not all young people are focused on materialistic success. Neal Karlinsky demonstrates this in the quotation, “Today, young idealistic pilgrims post their adventures on YouTube as they follow in the footsteps of Alexander Supertramp and visit the now famous “ magic bus” deep in the Alaskan interior.” This passage describes how some young people use Chris’ journey as a catalyst to discover their own identity and purpose as they travel to Alaska also.
Jack Kerouac's On the Road is considered the bible of the Beat Generation, illustrating the wild, wandering, and reckless lifestyle chosen by many young people of the time. Despite all of Dean and Sal's partying and pleasure-cruising, On the Road ends up being a sad and disturbing story. During all the trips, through the good times and the bad times, there is a sense of darkness and foreboding following in the wake. Kerouac's point was not to put on display the wild and good times the Beats were having, but rather to expose their way of life as a simple flight from reality and responsibility. The sadness of this novel is due to the accumulation of consequences stemming from the characters' irresponsibility and general lack of direction. Dean and Sal, however, never fully admit this to themselves. Part of the story's beauty is Sal's non-judgmental narrative. To preserve this, Kerouac must carefully incorporate these views while leaving Sal somewhat oblivious to them. This is done using other characters to implant the notion of looming responsibility and reality into the story, and to communicate to the reader that life really is more serious than Sal admits in his narration.
“On the Road During the Great Depression” takes place during the height of the Great Depression. The depression started on October 28, 1929, today known as Black Tuesday, where $10 Billion vanished from the market in 5 hours (Give me Liberty 799). In 1930, the stocks recovered a little, but then began falling till 1933. The Market would not return to normal till 1954 (lecture 10). The crash left 15 million American out of work, which led to as many as 5 million American to go out on the bum (lecture 10). Traveling city to city just like Skaret
In the Novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, survival becomes the biggest quest to life. The novel is set to be as a scene of isolation and banishment from people and places. The author uses the hidden woods as a set of isolation for the characters, in which creates the suspense of traveling to an unspecified destination near the shore. Cormac McCarthy creates a novel on the depth of an imaginative journey, which leads to a road of intensity and despair. The journey to move forward in an apocalyptic world transforms both of the main characters father and son tremendously as time progress. In particular, the boys’ isolation takes him from hope to torment, making him become fearful and imaginative. The images indicate that McCarthy’s post apocalyptic novel relies on images, particular verbal choices, and truthful evidence to how isolation affected the son emotionally and physically.
As Travis’s taxi drives down the road, the viewer gets the chance to view the streets through the eyes of Travis. You see things through the windshield and rearview mirrors, all luminescent in the neon glow of the night. The streets are filled with different sorts; prostitutes on the street corners, pimps in the cafes, and homeless people wandering through the mess aimlessly. As film critic Leonard Quart put’s it
Kazuo Ishiguro uses the setting of Never Let Me Go to reinforce the major ideas within the novel. To reinforce the sense of freedom Ishiguro uses driving to show that although the students of Hailsham and the cottages are now free that’s not how life has always been. Driving is shown as a time for Kathy to physically and mentally roam free, to think about the ups and downs of her life, the things that she has regretted and in a heartbeat, would do-over again. The students of Hailsham are free to wander the grounds but not leave, this is where the setting and sense of freedom within Hailsham come in to play, the perception that if they did leave and entered the forest it was practically suicide, “Once, not so long before we all got to Hailsham,
In Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’, the protagonists embark upon a long, arduous quest for human identity. Their aim is to uncover who they truly are, where they fit in the ‘scheme of things’ and what the meaning of life is. They articulate this desire by speaking, during the novel, of the search for ‘IT’, ‘IT’ being human identity. This ‘IT’ is an intangible thing; something that holds a different meaning for every individual. It encompasses all the things humans yearn for – life answers, the meaning of the universe, happiness, enlightenment, self-fulfilment, ‘beatification’ (as articulated by Kerouac). ‘On the Road’ is the story of a desperate search for ‘IT’, in which the protagonists finally come to realise that ‘IT’ is unattainable and time cannot be defied.
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” show the readers similar struggles of life. “The Road Not Taken” is about taking control of one’s life and living it aside from how others live theirs. While “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” shows the desire for rest. Sometimes people regret the possibilities of the road not chosen, sometimes people feel proud about the road that they
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” provide us contrasting and sometimes similar glimpses of life. “The Road Not Taken” is about taking control and living life. “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” entails the desire for rest, perhaps due to the speaker’s feelings of weariness from facing life’s struggles. The poet also explains the tough choices people stand before when traveling the road of life. Sometimes people regret the possibilities of the road not chosen, sometimes people feel proud about the road they have chosen.
The car was hot and stuffy when I slipped back into the driver's seat. I found the most depressing music I owned and drove out of Glenwood as the sun started to set. Two more hours until I was home, two more hours of thinking what a terrible day I had gone through, and two more hours of cussing myself for being so naïve. The drive was a long one.
The road before us seems to stretch for eternity. Driving away from home, the anticipation to get there is overpowering. The best way to pass time is singing along to dad’s 1980’s music. As the billboards flash by I can only catch
In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, author Robert Frost uses the simple image of a road to represent a person’s journey through life. A well-established poet, Frost does a proficient job of transforming a seemingly common road to one of great importance, which along the way helps one identify who they really are. This poem is one of self-discovery. Frost incorporates strong elements of poetry such as theme, symbolism, rhyme scheme, diction, imagery, and tone to help create one of his most well known pieces about the human experience.