At The End Of The Road

I am almost done with On The Road by Jack Kerouac. When I started the book, the only thing I knew about it was what I'd read in my US History book about it; that it offered insights into the lifestyle of the Beat generation. I didn't know if I would like it, but I broke the golden rule and thought the cover looked interesting.

As soon as I'd started it, I was intrigued. Kerouac's style is completely different than what I'm used to reading. Although I wasn't sure about the way the characters just talk and talk in huge long sentences about the strangest things, I quickly got used to and even began to like this style.

Dean Moriarty is a character different than any character I've ever encountered. He's spontaneous, neurotic, and completely sincere. He gets excited over people on the street, and nature, and the way someone words a sentence...he's innocent and insightful and illogical. He falls in love with girl after girl, but gets restless and leaves wives and children in the dust. He's irresponsible and selfish, but I somehow still found myself rooting for him.

At first, I decided that if I met someone like Dean in person, I probably wouldn't feel the absolute reverence for him as the narrator, Sal Paradise, does. As I read on, I wasn't sure if that was entirely true. Though Dean is erratic and illogical and insensible, he's also very inspirational. He finds beauty in everything, chases truth, and strives to understand what life is about.
(I cannot say that some of his enthusiasm for life's more simple things isn't due to his consumption of "tea" throughout the book.)

Besides, the complexity, sincerity, and charisma of Dean Moriarty, another aspect of the book I was very intrigued by was their nomadic lifestyle. The ability to just pick up and go at any time, on a whim, to different parts of the country, knowing that there are friends that will open their doors to you and have a bed or at least a floor for you to sleep on, is very interesting to me. I would love to bum around the country with a group of friends between a larger group of friends for a while. Traveling, meeting new people, experiencing different cultures within the United States; this would be very enjoyable to me.

This book is crazy and complicated and trippy, frankly, but it's also a very good peek into the Beat generation, and is sure to keep you interested.

(421 words)