In Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Dean Moriarty's introduction and the paradoxical themes of the Eastern and Western "road" of Sal Paradise's character spark evolutionary dissension of Sal ultimately chooses to return to the East and his standard of living, making Sal, not Dean, the true hero of the novel. The character's misadventures across the country allow Sal to develop his sociological bent. and gain a new, more worldly view of American spirituality The frontier-style Buddhist ideology that takes the form of "IT" provides an irresistible catalyst for the characters, however, these freedoms come at a heavy price when he recognizes the. potential destruction that the attractions of the road create and abandon the people around him, and his quest for "computer science" is forged in a disingenuous way. The implications of his abandonment of responsibilities ultimately alienate him from Sal and many others. others still. Nevertheless, the security of Sal's oriental lifestyle repeatedly finds itself at odds with seduction. of the West, the “road” itself is symbolized in particular by the character of Dean Moriarty whose destiny put him in a position to exploit this freedom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Sal, born in the East and living with his aunt, is a young veteran working on a novel and attending college intermittently. He had recently separated from his wife at the start of the novel. His father had recently passed away and, one could argue, he was not emotionally stable when he first met Dean. His inspiration as an author had plateaued and his life had become dry and dull. His lifestyle before meeting Dean Moriarty corresponded to the American ideals of the time which symbolized the McCarthyist dogmas of the East. After developing a disdain for "intellectual" camaraderie, Sal begins to realize: "My New York friends were in a negative and nightmarish position of belittling society and giving their tired, bookish, political or psychoanalytic reasons (Kerouac 1, 8). Sal embodies "the helplessness of the individual lost in a vast and complex corporate society" which proved to be a common conflict in postwar American fiction (Newhouse 161). His desire to be introduced to an ultimate truth, and then to explore it in his novel, began to blossom under Dean's guidance and their many cross-country adventures. Only after Sal abandons his "large half-manuscript...my comfy sheets" does his stalled dialogue and writing end and he is given a chance to discover the meaning of his novel on the road rather than to think comfortably (and in vain) in his oriental home (Kerouac 9). “Dean is the perfect guy… because he was actually born. on the road,” Sal reveals at the beginning of the novel (1). Sal is angered by the way Dean lives his life and finds himself consumed by the promise of traveling with Dean to make sense of his own existence and scholarly aspirations. Asked the motivations for his cross-country ramblings, "Dean could only blush and reply, 'Well, you know how it is'" (145). The West, for Sal, represents action, exploration, camaraderie and spiritual realization. Defying the decade's aura of conservative politeness, Dean engages in the taboo street life which, according to the novel, is the only way to break away from society and achieve transcendence. He forms a network of starry-eyed followers who are captivated by his con artist charisma and boundless energy, "he was just a young person who was extremely excited about life" (4). To manyrepeated throughout the novel, Sal begins to feel self-conscious about his "whiteness" and seeks relief from other races ostracized by post-war American society because, for Sal, being white is a sign of decadence of body and mind (Gair 65-6, Richardson 7). “I was…a disillusioned “white man.” All my life I had white ambitions” (Kerouac 180). There is a kind of truth that the master enslaves himself. For Dean, this is especially true. He, who unleashed the lowest divisions of society, considers as true the paradox according to which it is only through oppression that a man finds true freedom. In many cases, the novel's characters are fascinated by spontaneity and white people disapprove of the expressiveness of jazz, which was, at the time, considered an art form inferior to exclusively African-American standards. Look different; act differently; to think differently, these became vague archetypes of subversion and impiety (Johnston 105). “On the Road invites us to suppose that in America blacks have somehow been ‘freer’ than whites…as if suffering were some kind of gift” (Richardson 12). But Sal also believes that white people cannot find true meaning in their lives because of their capitalist lifestyle and materialistic tendencies. According to Sal, the lack of culture and the corruption of capitalism is what bogs down white people (Mortenson 2). Sal and Dean find solace in escapades in Mexico, in jazz clubs and on the streets of cities where a minority group has a majority presence. This emphasis on minority freedom is embodied in the novel when Sal develops a passionate, albeit brief, relationship with a Mexican man. woman named Terry and even takes care of her son while picking cotton to support her new family with very little pay for extremely tedious work. “I forgot everything about the East, about Dean, about Carlo and that damn road” (97). Yet Sal remembers Dean; he begins to feel agitated and abandons Terry with his family. Sal, however, has experienced freedom independently (freed from Dean's influence) and this marks a profound change in his autonomy. From this point in his journey as a character, Sal begins to ponder the endless warnings about Dean. …psychopathic irresponsibility and violence…if you leave…with this madman, you’ll never make it” (Kerouac 147). Sal has excuses ready for every wrong Dean does, no matter how bad his actions are. Everyone from Sal's aunt to Dean's own brother alludes that going the route with Dean would spell disaster at the mate's expense. “They said I really didn't know Dean…he was the worst scoundrel that ever lived and I would find out one day to my great regret (Kerouac 196). Dean may be a path to fulfillment and adventure, but the avant-garde bohemian is so erratic and unpredictable that there's no guarantee he'll maintain interest in his companions. After all, bohemia makes no claim to stability. It is a lifestyle characterized by spontaneity, anarchy, and “total obsession with one's deepest impulses” (Newhouse 15). To be bohemian in America was to embrace the mystique of the tramp. It is a renunciation of all bourgeois tendencies in favor of a more rustic existence. Resources are not collected and stored: they are found on the road and must be sought and earned. Sal and Dean often get off on small things and often don't even have a thoughtful or even coherent plan for their adventure. Postwar American bohemia, in particular, uses land diversionsto facilitate the quest for higher consciousness. Frequent drug use is persistent throughout the novel in an attempt by many characters to rise above the mundane realities of the world to reach a higher level. truth. Many characters throughout the novel, not excluding Sal, experience the effects of drugs on their consciousness. Usually, however, sexual promiscuity turns out to be more widespread, with Dean the real poster boy. By defying the aura of conservative politeness of the decade; Dean engages in the taboo street life that so fascinates Sal and other characters. Sal more or less constantly defends Dean's actions, no matter how much he exploits and neglects his friends and responsibilities. "'Criminality' was not something to be sulked and sneered at; it was a wild explosion of American joy; it was Western."(7). "For him, sex was the one and only thing holy and important in life” and yet, “his relationships with women are sufficiently abusive and obtuse to… startle” (Kerouac 2, Richardson 5). the idea that sex provides a moment of ecstasy where a person can experience a fleeting moment of understanding When referring to his sexual escapades, Dean often describes the shaping of his soul with the woman he is with. in relation. The “road” is a character in its own right It unites the East and the West, but is not linear in the literal sense of the word because it is often set back and deviated. The characters frequently travel their own paths. , but never really leave the same “road” because it “could only remain a valid metaphor for freedom if it moved away from social entrapment towards a new type of flourishing… [it was] allegorical, a quest. for the salvation that prevented civilized man from reaching transcendence” (Newhouse 67). The road promises the potential for fulfillment and freedom regardless of direction and whose ideologies translate most clearly into the character of Dean Moriarty. “The ‘Beat Condition’ [was] characterized… [by] a ‘beatific stage’… marked by the accomplishment of vision and the communication of that vision to the human community” (Johnston 104). Kerouac, like the Buddhists, sought liberation and enlightenment through the process of suffering and self-denial of all material ties. However, the consequences of a person's karmic actions only cease when all earthly attachments are renounced (Fisher 201). Sal discovers that Dean's life is instilled with attachments that create karmic consequences. Although Dean repeatedly abandons people and places, he does not do this out of altruism. Rather, Dean freely abandons people just to achieve his own ends, creating a trail of destruction and neglect in his wake. “You have absolutely no respect for anyone who buys [sic] your damn kicks. All you think about is what's lying between your legs and how much money or pleasure you can get out of people, and then you toss them aside. (Kérouac 194). In Buddhism, this lifestyle has cataclysmic karmic repercussions, preventing the person from achieving true happiness until rebirth. Dean maintains his perpetual characteristics throughout the novel and with his many wives, children and disciples trailing behind him in his shadow, hungry for his attention and enlightenment; Dean's mania is entirely centered around researching "computer science". Another critical ideology of Buddhism that the novel relates to is reincarnation. Buddhists believe that until Nirvana (enlightenment or "IT) is achieved, the “soul” will be reborn forever in different sensitive forms. Sal, while wandering the streets after being abandoned by Dean, has an epiphany and believes he has glimpsed a view of his past lives: I realized that I had died and been born many times, but I didn't realize I just didn't remember it, especially because of life's transitions. going back and forth to death is so easy, a magical action for nothing, like falling asleep and being confronted a million times with total casualness and profound ignorance. (Kerouac 173) This spiritual mystery, Sal believes, is embodied in Dean. Sal exclaims: “He was BEAT—the root, the soul of Beatific…the SAINT GOOF…the Idiot, the Fool, the Saint of the lot (Kerouac194). Sal believes that Dean's "sins" must be committed because they pave the way for the freedoms required to live and fully absorb existence. To Sal, Dean was a spiritual leader whose vision of the truth of existence was to be respected and emulated under his careful tutelage. Ironically, the novel (despite claiming that Dean already possesses "IT") never gives direct evidence of Dean's spiritual enlightenment. The notion is neither clearly argued for or against. Dean's series of abuses in his quest can be interpreted as his lack of true understanding - he is often called a liar and a fraud. Yet Sal in particular often asserts that this freedom must be accompanied by these "abuses" because true freedom must have no restrictions. According to Dean, true freedom lies in anarchy. However, direct proof of Sal's transcendence is given: And just for a moment, I had reached the point of ecstasy that I had always wanted to reach, which was the full step through chronological time towards timeless shadows... and the feeling of death hitting me at my heels. continue, with a ghost on his own heels, and myself rushing to a plank where all the angels dove and flew into the sacred void of the uncreated void...countless lotus lands opening in the magical swarm of moths from the sky. (Kerouac 173) Sal, however, has the privilege of having known both Dean's world and his own which provides the ideal conditions for the primordial soup that becomes Sal's great heroism. This gives him the freedom to find a medium between madness and the banal. Dean's childhood never allowed for that. Dean's father is always present throughout the characters' journeys. He is a physical representation of Dean's future if he continues on the path he is on. Dean's symbolic demonstration of the ultimate ideal and maniacal, irrational frenzy was, unlike Sal, imposed on him from birth. As a child growing up in the Great Depression, Dean never knew stability, responsibility, or discipline. Kerouac believed in a “dispiriting portrait of a broken American home…that his father knew no better” (Spangler 8). Very young, he is left to his own devices, without a mother and with an indifferent father living like a vagabond. After an escapade on a train, eleven-year-old Dean found himself looking for work alone: ​​"I was so hungry for milk and cream that I got a job in a dairy and the first thing I did, I drank two liters of heavy milk. cream and vomit” (Kerouac 140). As an adult, his views on minorities (including women) and his subsequent treatment of them were directly influenced by the fact that Dean had only ever associated with the dregs of the underworld due to his social placement dictated by his birth. Dean never gets a choice or a glimpse of another life. His attitude is a product of his environment and he never has the luxury of Sal's bias. Sal experienced security and comfort that Dean never had.”.