In Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road, the narrator, Sal Paradise offers up to us what seems to be a very optimistic view on life. He is forever singing the praises of how wonderful his adventures will be and his high expectations for the future. To Sal, the novel is defined by youthful exuberance and unabashed optimism for the new experiences that he sets out to find. A deeper look into the novel, as well as a look at some of the critics who have written on it, reveals a much darker side, a more pessimistic and sad aspect that Sal simply fails to realize until the very close of the action. Whether Sal is hopped up on the optimism of jazz music, secure in his belief that he is off to find ‘IT,’ or just excited about the promises of a night out in a new city, he is consistently selling the reader on the positive nature of the situations. To be more honest though, On the Road is a novel in which Sal, and the people with whom he surrounds himself, find themselves steeped into a near constant cycle of enthusiastic optimism for the future, which is then followed by a disparaging pessimism for the situation’s reality. While Sal might note that he desires the freedom and happiness of the open road, Ann Douglas says that "this is the saddest book that I’ve ever read" (Douglas, 9). While Sal attempts to show a exuberant and triumphant story of youthful optimism, critics and the actual events of the novel alike seem to point towards the fact that this same optimism turns the novel into a pessimistic story showing the actualities of life.
Sal’s optimism can be defined by hopeful, often unrealistic, ambitions for the future. Without any real knowledge of what they will encounter, since the road often lands them in cities and towns where they have never been, the characters almost exclusively hope for the best, think everything will work out just fine – never considering the clear possibilities for disappointment. High expectations for parties or a hope to make it across the country using only one road are just two example of the blind optimism seen throughout the novel. While the headstrong characters of the novel run about the country thinking that everything will be all right, the actuality remains that most situations end in sorrow or adversely affected lives. Picking up hitchhikers who ultimately f...
... middle of paper ...
...nts and characters are masked by the early optimism that is laid down time and time again through Sal Paradise’s narration. This is not to say that the whole novel is defined by pessimism, for Sal and his crew do have fun and do experience a great deal of the American landscape. Sal even seems to find IT when he connects with the intense wilderness of the swamp in Mexico. But in the end, Sal’s discovery of IT only lasts momentarily and he returns to a world that shows little remorse for a disillusioned college kid crossing the continent, underlining the general criticism of this novel as sad. Kerouac’s novel, and the cycle of early hopes to frenzied excitement ending with depressing conclusions, seems to serve as a cautionary tale to warn readers of the sorry state of the world. Kerouac himself supported this idea when he decided to draw away from the world of "beat" of which many consider him the creator. Kerouac’s movement in his life away from the beat lifestyle seems to suggest that, much like Sal’s departure from the life of Dean at the end of the novel, he has experienced the depression of the world and if others do not realize it, he can no longer be a part of it.
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby makes the reader feel almost depressed. Fitzgerald describes things that are usually viewed as pleasant and beautiful in dull, grim ways. The story line itself is grim, and Fitzgerald truly conveys that through his descriptions, which set the tone of futility. When reading the book, one understands right away that the story isn’t going to be a happy one. A description of Tom Buc...
Bad choices are made every day by everybody. Those bad choices could lead to consequences that are going to bother a person for a long time. Even more, that person may try various ways to correct that error. The intention is good, but things can go even worse if the effort is based on unrealistic fantasies. This effort is presented as a part of modernist ideas. Modernist writers dramatize this effort through the tragic outcomes of the characters. Three modernist pieces, A Street Car Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, all of them sent out a message to the audience, the loss of past and how it cannot be recovered. Each piece features a character who lost hope, strived to recover the hope, and ended with a tragic outcome. A Street Car Named Desire featured Blanche; Blanche spent her whole life trying to get some attentions. Death of a Salesman featured Willy; Willy spent his whole life trying to apply the idea “Be Well Liked.” The Great Gatsby featured Jay Gatsby; Gatsby spent his whole life trying to win back Daisy. All of those characters ended with tragic outcome. Blanche was sent to asylum by her own sister. Willy committed suicide after felt humiliated by his sons. Gatsby was murdered with a gunshot planned by Tom Buchanan. Blanche, Willy, and Gatsby’s tragic fates are caused by their false beliefs about life, which are proven wrong by the contradictions between the reality and the illusion.
“Son, if you make it to Queens, our time in Canada would truly be worth it.” This phrase was brought back into my mind while reading Fitzgerald 's “The Great Gatsby.” I saw myself in Gatsby, a man with the drive to change his live. I often imagine the readers of this novel thinking “Gatsby was driven to go from rags to riches, he must be happy!” Unfortunately, drive alone cannot make a man happy, effective actions and a fulfilling goal is just as important. Gatsby died a sad man for his criminal actions and terrible goal. I may not be great, but I sure am happy!
The American Dream is said to be realised through hard work and perseverance ; it is ostensibly a reachable goal for anyone who chooses to exercise their ‘inalienable right’ to the ‘pursuit of Happiness.’ This ambiguous phrase, ‘the pursuit of Happiness’ was originally inserted into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson and is a clear and overriding concern in The Great Gatsby. In the 1920s, when the novel is set, America was experiencing a newfound level of prosperity; the economy was booming and the possibility of gaining wealth became an achievable reality. As a result, the pursuit of happiness in The Great Gatsby is far from the founding fathers’ initial intentions and instead, in this new context, Fitzgerald demonstrates the confusion of happiness with money and social standing. American ideals were replaced with a fixation to gather material wealth regardless of consequence, and success no longer required hard work. Fitzgerald clearly depicts this mutated pursuit of happiness through the setting and characterisation in the novel. Revolutionary Road similarly reflects this altered American pursuit through the naivety and self-delusion of the characters and their actions.
Kerouac guides the reader to the understanding that "IT" can be different for everyone. Sal began his search for "IT" because he was restless in ...
Similarly, the book’s three leading protagonists ultimately possess a common objective, escaping their unjust circumstances in pursuit of seeking the “warmth of other suns.” For this reason, they abandon the laws of Jim Crow and the familiarity of their hometowns as they flee to a better life. In the process, they all assume a level of risk in their decisions to rebel against the system. For example, Ida decides to embark on a precarious journey while in the beginning stages of a clandestine pregnancy. Any number of unpredictable events could have resulted from this judgment, including fatality. All of the migrants shared an unspoken agreement that the rewards would far outweigh the dangers involved.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's life has been described as a “Tragic example of both sides of the American dream the joys of young love , wealth and success and the tragedies associated with excess and failure. ”(Willet, “The Sensible Things”). The Dominant influences on Fitzgerald and his work were aspiration,literature, Princeton, his wife and alcohol. With the constant fear of death and failure plaguing him his entire life, his literary works and his life accomplishments always seemed to be never good enough and through his life Fitzgerald constantly suffered a constant thought that he had failed to do anything with his life and that his literary works would never go on to be anything that people ever took the time to care about.
The stories suggest we shouldn’t be spending so much time trying to get to the “Happy Ending”, and we should be more concerned about what’s going on in the middle. The majority of us are that typical person living the typical life, and perhaps Atwood is suggesting that we strive for more.
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
So often, it seems, life can seem like a "patient etherized on the table" (Eliot, 3). Be it the apparent futility of existence as a whole, or the insecurity of those single moments of doubt; life is often fleeting. I believe life is best described as a fickle beast, always elusive; always turning down some new and unexpected road. This fleeting life is what both Jay Gatsby of The Great Gatsby and Alfred J. Prufrock of "Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock" experience. These two men experiences move down remarkably similar paths as they quest for love and life. Yet each has sealed their shared fate in a different manner. As they head toward the seeming abyss of death, both remiss on all they wish they had done during their lives. By the time each man meets his end they both feel they have failed themselves and life as a whole.
Reading is an experience of art; without readers’ interaction, the meaning of any literary work is insufficient. “[Norman] Holland believes that we react to literary texts with the same psychological responses we bring to our daily life....That is, in various ways we unconsciously recreate in the text the world that exists in our mind.” (Tyson, 182) By telling a story that centers on the conflicts between two wealth young females whose personalities are distinctly different in the jazz age, Fitzgerald leads us on a journey of physical, and especially psychological transition of the protagonists through an omniscient narration. For female individuals, a tale emphasis on the youth,
A vast number of poets choose to write about and express their thoughts on life and how to go about living life. Be it living towards a better future or living in such a way that is different from the social norms of society. “Let Me Die a Youngman’s Death” written by Roger McGough, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein all share the same theme of life. It is their perceptions about how life should be lived and the ways in which people make decisions and certain lifestyle choices where their messages differ. McGough wants to live a life with no boundaries, reckless and wild. He hopes that he may die with a bang, so he can be remembered, not simply fade away and give in to old age. “The Road Not Taken” states that when there is a fork in the road, there are two ways in which a person can go. Ultimately, in order to succeed or make it anywhere in life, for that matter, one needs to decide and take the risk. Silverstein, on the contrary, believes that the world is moving too fast, and that people need to slow down enjoy all of life’s pleasures; forget about the seriousness of the world. Each of these poets displays their thoughts through the use of various techniques within their poems. These include repetition, assonance and alliteration, diction.
The American Dream and the decay of American values has been one of the most popular topics in American fiction in the 20th century. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises create a full picture of American failure and pursue its ideals after the end of World War I by portraying the main characters as outsiders and describing the transportation in a symbolic way. Putting the aimless journeys for material life foreground, Fitzgerald and Hemingway skillfully link West and men and associate East to not only money but women. As American modernists, Hemingway utilizes his simple and dialog-oriented writing to appeal to readers and Fitzgerald ambiguously portrays Gatsby through a narrator, Nick, to cynically describe American virtue and corruption, which substantially contribute to modernism in literature.
The human existence is a series of choices leading to either an individual’s success or doom. As one tries to fit in, in an attempt to survive in an insecure world, one is often left wondering, what of the road not taken? Robert Frost addressing this core concept of humanity through his poem “The Road Not Taken.” In this poem, Frost presents the speaker with a forked road. The speaker has no choice but to chose one way or the other. As the speaker looks back he finds how significant his choice was in shaping his life. Frost is able to take a problem that one is faced with daily, and construe it in a manner that is relatable to the common audience. Frost’s eloquence in his poem, coupled with the ample amount of life lessons that one is able to connect to, and the empowering nature of the poem gives grounds that “The Road Not Taken” is truly captivating.
For example, Jordan has an idealized expectation of his time with Maria: “He felt the earth move out and away from under them” (FWTBT, 159). Jordan romanticizes his love for her, even clouding his perception of reality. His strong feelings for Maria seem to take Jordan away from the reality of fate. Although noble, Jordan realizes his vision is colored by love: “What nonsense, he thought. What rot you get to thinking by yourself” (FWTBT, 166). Jordan is more wrapped up in his ideal than the suffering that stares him in the face. Killinger explains, “Hemingway’s Jordan dreams often of a day when the war will be over for him, and he can resume his freedom.” Sadly, this reality is impossible to accomplish because of his orders. Despite Jordan’s idealistic expectation, the hopelessness of his situation is always present.