Sal Paradise, main character of the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac, is a young writer living the American dream in the 1950s. Sal and his friends, all mad writers (especially Dean Moriarty that he considers as his hero), are hitchhiking from the east coast and driving back to the west coast during summer. They arrange their plans to meet up with each other in different cities of America. At the end of the book, they will even drive down to Mexico. During their journey on the road, alcohol, drugs, music and sex are highly represented. Also, it is common for them to “knock up” women and leave them to hit the road in search for other women, to whom they make promises to come visit them again to get married, knowing they will not be able to fulfil their promises.
As the book progresses, we can read that they realize that what they are doing is irresponsible and surreal. Sometimes after having fun at the expense of others, they show remorse and guilt over their actions. They leave problems in their path to run into other problems in other cities involving other people. (Consulted reviews on goodread.com)
Finally, as the budget gets tight and they are not able to pay for the car, the gas, the food and a bed, they will try to find meaningless jobs and even sometimes live in the street. These young writers represent the Beat Generation after the WW2.
In my analysis, I will mention some excerpts from the book that have particularly attracted my attention. The most shocking one is when the narrator, Sal, refers to Afro-Americans as Negros or colored people. It might be common following the events of the WW2, but it is still bringing up some anger in me when reading these words. Secondly, Sal resumes perfectly the morality and story of th...
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...k, she had worked as a nurse for wounded soldiers in the hope to meet Robbie and apologize. When he would be back from the war she tried to get in contact with her sister and Robbie, to ask for forgiveness for the biggest mistake she made years ago. In her interview she said having given them the conclusion to their lives that they deserved. But Cecilia and Robbie did not have the chance to see what it is like to meet again after the war and live together. Briony was not able to say sorry and this will haunt her for the rest of her life. She changed the end of the story to make herself feel better and less guilty. But I disagree with her point. It makes her feel maybe less responsible for their tragic end but it does not change anything for Robbie and her sister. Briony is the best example to demonstrate that the smallest act can have the biggest consequences.
The novel covered so much that high school history textbooks never went into why America has never fully recovered from slavery and why systems of oppression still exists. After reading this novel, I understand why African Americans are still racially profiled and face prejudice that does not compare to any race living in America. The novel left a mixture of frustration and anger because it is difficult to comprehend how heartless people can be. This book has increased my interests in politics as well and increased my interest to care about what will affect my generation around the world. Even today, inmates in Texas prisons are still forced to work without compensation because peonage is only illegal for convicts. Blackmon successfully emerged the audience in the book by sharing what the book will be like in the introduction. It was a strange method since most would have expected for this novel to be a narrative, but nevertheless, the topic of post Civil War slavery has never been discussed before. The false façade of America being the land of the free and not confronting their errors is what leads to the American people to question their integrity of their own
Racism and Segregation is a strong recurring theme in the novel Jasper Jones. Silvey has used Jasper, Charlie, and Jeffrey to convey the themes of racism through the book and to send an important message to the audience. He has shown us that making assumptions about someone based on rumours and appearances is wrong and that racism can rise out of ignorance. Silvey’s main message was that anyone can overcome racism and that it is just
George Saunders, a writer with a particular inclination in modern America, carefully depicts the newly-emerged working class of America and its poor living condition in his literary works. By blending fact with fiction, Saunders intentionally chooses to expose the working class’s hardship, which greatly caused by poverty and illiteracy, through a satirical approach to criticize realistic contemporary situations. In his short story “Sea Oak,” the narrator Thomas who works at a strip club and his elder aunt Bernie who works at Drugtown for minimum are the only two contributors to their impoverished family. Thus, this family of six, including two babies, is only capable to afford a ragged house at Sea Oak,
Trilling, Lionel. "Review of Black Boy." Richard Wright: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah. New York : Amistad, 1993.
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.
He then goes on to state that on a chosen night, the people implement a planned mass killing of all the African-American folk, therefore solving all of their problems. The essay is able to show how effective racist language and ideas can be, as well as providing a good example of a writing style that keeps the reader engaged
On the Road by Jack Kerouac, author during the Beats’ generation, is largely considered a novel that defined a generation. Despite this consideration, however, there are very many controversies linked to this book. Though many call the novel offensive, unexciting, and poorly written, Kerouac deserves the entirety of the acclamations he has received over the years as the result of his roman á clef. Along with literary classics such as The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Grapes of Wrath; On the Road has historically been challenged and even banned in classroom settings. If a novel is challenged, that means it has a message that breaks the status quo and pushes the boundaries of literature. On the Road objects stigmas about casual sex, the drug culture, poverty, capitalism and what it meant to be living in 1960’s America.
The above-mentioned essays are: Nihilism in Black America, The Pitfalls of Racial Reasoning, The Crisis of Black Leadership, Demystifying the Black Conservatism, Beyond Affirmative Action: Equality and Identity, On Black-Jewish Relations, Black Sexuality: The Taboo Subject, Malcolm X and Black Rage. My analysis of these essays, and therefore the book itself, revealed that the racism of the past, through the 1990s (during the writing of the book) still persists up until today. This book is considered a classic because of its insightfulness on key aspects of race in general, and blacks in particular.... ... middle of paper ... ...
...sal experience that people must begin to view as connected. This statement is particularly poignant when viewed in the context of the time it was written: even if his readership was not black or part of the abolitionist movement, Douglass showed that they were still implicated in the institution of slavery, both literally and metaphorically. The abolitionist movement, then, is not a ‘black’ movement, but one which every human is necessarily implicated in. Until social normativity is able to distance itself from the ideological control of institutions, everyone is a slave, and the abolitionist movement is one that all humans are in together.
In the first four chapters, he explains the currents in modern African-America thought. In chapter one he tells us stories of victimology. The second chap...
This book was fantastic. This book had many things to learn and think about. There were many things but they were only two who made me think what they meant and why were they important. First thing, was that about three thousand boys and young men from the refugee camps would be chosen to go live in America. Second thing, how Salva will use his uncle’s advice to keep going onto his future.
In conclusion, it can be determined with much evidence that Jack Kerouac used his unusual lifestyle as an influence for much of his works. Without his exotic way of life, Kerouac wouldn’t have had any inspiration to write On the Road. Inspired significantly by Neal Cassidy, Jack Kerouac lived a wild and adventurous life where each day was much more different than the next. Instead of being a boring, close-minded writer like Sal Paradise in the beginning of On the Road, Jack Kerouac found his inspiration through his travels, parties, and his Buddhist and Catholic beliefs.
What I liked most about this book was the reality it revealed. It showed how brutal and cruel the society was. This book made me realize that racism is deeply embedded in the life and history of the nation, and it still exists in today’s society.
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, is an honest story of a friendship, and four trips across America. The narrator is Sal Paradise, an aspiring novelist who lives with his aunt in New Jersey. Sal’s best friend is Dean Moriarty. Sal idolizes Dean for his laidback cowboy style, his ease with women, and his all around joy in living. Over the course of the book, Dean marries, divorces, makes love to, and impregnates numerous women. Sal is considerably less promiscuous, but he doesn’t seem to hold women in any higher of a light than Dean does. To Sal and Dean, on their journey for a greater understanding of themselves, and life, women were mere roadside attractions.
The beat generation is known as a post war generation due to its close proximity to the end of WWII. Many members of the post war generations suffer from the lack of a fixed identity, questioning who they are, what they want out of life, and what are their limits. M...