The character of Sal Paradise, in the novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac, is a complex fusion of the fictional and the real. Kerouac created Sal in his own image and used him as a tool to shine a light on the state of America in the aftermath of World War II. Sal is a kind of modern picaro, but with a rhythmic touch. Although he travels through the bowels of America, he sees no harm in it. The rhythm part of Sal Paradise shows him the light of God in everything he encounters. This unique combination of the picaresque and the romantic allows the reader to gain a new perspective on the America of Sal Paradise's era. Sal Paradise shows us the dregs of the world through rose-colored glasses, digging it all the way. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay When we first meet Sal, he has already developed many of the traits of the picaro. Although he is in his twenties, Sal still lives with his aunt, who supports him financially. He's an unpublished writer, which more or less means he's unemployed. He is divorced. His time is spent in bars and cold apartments. This irresponsibility, this marginalization of society and this financial instability are typical of the picaro. Sal immerses himself in the adventures of thugs like Dean Moriarty because, as Sal says, "The only people for me are the crazy ones, the ones who are crazy about living, crazy about talking, crazy about being saved, wanting everything at once." times. at the same time, those who never yawn or say a banal thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous exploding yellow Roman candles. This desire to follow in the footsteps of those Sal considers to be truly alive will later prove to be the driving force behind his behavior and his constant need to be on the road. It was out of a desire for experience that Sal first set out on the road, taking a new step in his evolution towards the picaresque. This action serves both to divide the book into sections and to shed more light on Sal's character. It’s the long road trip that shapes Sal’s life – and the novel as well. This clearly fits into the picaresque tradition of the anti-hero character on a journey that transports him to the margins of society. The fact that Sal embarks on these journeys does not in itself constitute picaresque behavior. The situations Sal finds himself in and the people he meets along the way, combined with Sal's behavior in those situations and toward those people, combine to form a novel in the picaresque tradition. A picaro is a mischievous nomad, traveling the world for the necessities of life and living only to please himself. Sal Paradise fits that bill perfectly. He goes from New York to Denver, San Francisco, New Orleans, Mexico and everywhere in between. He barely manages to survive on these trips, supplementing his veteran's benefit checks with money from his aunt and various other friends and ladies he meets. He stays in the houses of acquaintances, straining relationships to their breaking point before disappearing, only to return once old grievances are forgotten. He works randomly, working in security with Rémi Boncoeur or publishing snippets of writings. Theft is only out of the question if he can support himself without doing so. As Rémi Boncoeur says while Sal lives with him: “We have to reduce the cost of living. » Sal does all this to be free to pursue what truly motivates him: the art of gaining experience. Throughout the novel, Sal leads several lives, each of which is something of a "episode” unique and singular. Sal dives into the lives of others and stays there until he feels he has understood the essence of their being. Then he leaves, going in search of other leech life experiences. He cares little about the chaos he causes for the people he leaves behind or where he will end up next. Life experiences are what Sal really craves. His picaresque journey is not based on the need to survive. Sal could just stay home with his aunt and be perfectly taken care of. The driving force behind Sal's development as a picaro is his thirst for knowledge of lives he has not known. He travels the country to gain this knowledge, and once he has these new experiences absorbed into him, he moves on. These attempts appear to have been preceded by a similar lifestyle led by Old Bull Lee. Sal admires Bull, as an older, wiser friend, and his life of learning: "What he considered to be and called the 'facts of life'" made a great impression on Sal. Sal respectfully says, “He spent all his time talking and teaching others. Jane sat at his feet; Me too ; Dean too; just like Carlo Marx. We all learned from him. What Sal learns from Old Bull Lee is that life is full of truths for those who seek them out. Sal's road trips are his way of emulating this hero and teacher of the beat generation. The most glaring example of Sal's complete heartlessness and constant desire for new experiences comes when he abandons Remi and Lee Ann and meets Terry at the bus station. His time with Terry is as close as Sal comes to settling in the same place during the novel; Sal's life with Terry is about as close to a normal relationship as you can get. Everything about their relationship is compressed into a short time frame, but we get important insight into how Sal operates during this particular adventure. Two incidents that occurred during Sal's stay at Terry's house show us how Sal perceives himself and how he attempts to assimilate the people he meets into his perceptions. The first incident takes place when Sal is picking cotton in the fields to earn money to feed his “family”. He sees an old black couple picking in the fields with him and begins to imagine their ancestors doing the same work decades before. He soon manages to imagine himself as he sees the black couple. He comments that he has found his life's work. Later, back in the tent with Terry and Johnny, he says: “Sighing like an old Negro cotton picker, I lay down on the bed. » After a day of work picking cotton, Sal can already imagine himself as a world-weary field worker. Soon after, Sal becomes disillusioned with picking cotton and returns home to ask for more money. The other incident occurs after a mob lynching of Okies. a man near the camp where Sal resides with Terry and Johnny Sal says, "From that time on, I carried a big stick with me into the tent in case they got the impression that we Mexicans were let's salt their camp. a Mexican of course; and in a way I am. Here, Sal again shows his need to assimilate into cultures he barely understands. He actually believes that a few weeks of living with Terry has made him a true Hispanic, that everything he will ever need to know about being Mexican has already been done. available in this short time. A few days later, Sal leaves again. He has already gained the one thing he was truly looking for in his relationship with Terry: the belief that he fully understands the life she lives and the experiences she has. Terry becomes just another character in the..”