On the Road Essay: The Motif of Inadequacy of the Language

The Motif of Inadequacy of the Language in On the Road

Henry Glass, a kid fresh out of a penitentiary in Indiana who takes a bus to Denver with Sal Paradise, tells him about his brush with the Bible in jail, and then explains the dangers of the phenomenon of signification (I firmly believe that Kerouac intended no deconstructionist subtext in the passage; nor is it likely to be an neo-Marxist attempt to explicate the class conflict between the signifiers and the signified):

Anybody that's leaving jail soon and starts talking about his release date is 'signifying' to the other fellas that have to stay. We will take him by the neck and say, 'Don't signify with me!' Bad thing, to signify--y'hear me? (256)

The use of the learned word by an eighteen year old jail-bird is truly funny. The comic effect here is based on the discrepancy between the standard meaning and contextual use of the word "to signify." There is a number of episodes in the novel with the same kind of humor: in the opening chapter of the novel, which describes his first visit to New York, Dean comes up with some absolutely moronic tirades. E.g., talking to Marilou, he mentions the necessity to "postpone all those leftover things concerning our personal lovethings and at once begin thinking of specific workplans. . ." (Kerouac 5). Or, when asked directly by Sal, whether he needed to con him for a place to stay, he starts talking about "Shopenhauer's dichotomy inwardly realized" (ibid.).

Dean's (mis)use of language can be somewhat redeemed by his intellectual virginity and his genuine desire to be like his high-browed friend; indeed, being earnest is important, and can excuse almost anything. But what should one think about the way Carl...

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...rist--the heroes of the generation--never published (Krupat 407). Neither did Neil Cassidy, the silent genius behind the movement; but he by the example of his life provided the ideal which made Kerouac's gospel true.

Works Cited

Ashida, Margaret E. "Frog's and Frozen Zen." Prairie Schooner 34 (1960): 199-206.

Blackburn, William. "Han Shan Gets Drunk with the Butchers: Kerouac's Buddhism in On the Road, The Dharma Bums, and Desolation Angels." Literature East and West 21.1-4 (1977): 9-22.

Suzuki, D.T. An introduction to Zen Buddhism. Ed. Christmas Humphreys; fwd. C.G. Jung. London: Rider, 1983.

Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. Ed. Scott Donaldson. New York: Penguin, 1979.

Krupat, Arnold. "Dean Moriarty as Saintly Hero." On the Road. Text and Criticism. By Jack Kerouac. Ed.Scott Donaldson. New York: Penguin, 1979. 397-411.