On the Road is a 1957 novel by American author Jack Kerouac, inspired by his travels across the United States. It is widely regarded as a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation, following a group of friends living for the moment against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and rebellion.
The novel is a roman à clef, featuring characters based on central figures of the Beat movement. Kerouac appears as the narrator under the name Sal Paradise. The idea for the book developed during the late 1940s through a series of notebooks and was later typed on a continuous reel of paper over a three-week period in April 1951. It was first published by Viking Press in 1957.
The New York Times hailed the book's appearance as "the most beautifully executed, the clearest, and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac, himself, named years ago as 'beat', and whose principal avatar he is." In 1998, the Modern Library ranked On the Road 55th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.
Plot The two main characters of the book are the narrator, Sal Paradise, and his friend Dean Moriarty, much admired for his carefree attitude and sense of adventure, a free-spirited maverick eager to explore all kicks and an inspiration and catalyst for Sal's travels. The novel contains five parts, three of them describing road trips with Dean. The narrative takes place in the years 1947 to 1950, is full of Americana, and marks a specific era in jazz history, "somewhere between its Charlie Parker Ornithology period and another period that began with Miles Davis" (Pt. 1, Ch. 3). The novel is largely autobiographical, Sal being the alter ego of the author and Dean standing for Neal Cassady. Like Kerouac, Sal Paradise is a writer who published two books over the course of the plot, even though the names are not told.
Part One The first section describes Sal's first trip to San Francisco. Disheartened after a divorce, his life changes when he meets Dean Moriarty and begins to long for the freedom of the road. In July 1947, he sets off from his aunt's house in Paterson, New Jersey, with $50 () in his pocket. After taking several buses and hitchhiking, he arrives in Denver, Colorado, where he meets up with Carlo Marx, Dean, and their friends. There are parties—among them an excursion to the ghost town of Central City. Eventually, Sal leaves by bus and gets to San Francisco, where he meets Remi Boncoeur and his girlfriend Lee Ann. Remi arranges for Sal to take a job as a night watchman at a boarding camp for merchant sailors waiting for their ship. Not holding this job for long, Sal hits the road again. Soon he meets Terry, whom he described as a cute Mexican girl, on the bus to Los Angeles. They stay together, traveling back to Bakersfield, then to Sabinal, "her hometown", where her family works in the fields. Working in the cotton fields, Sal realizes that he is not made for this type of work. Leaving Terry behind, he takes a bus back east to Pittsburgh, and then hitchhikes his way to Times Square in New York City. Once there he bums a quarter off a preacher who looks the other way, and arrives at his aunt's house, just missing Dean, who had come to see him, by two days.
Part Two In December 1948, Sal is celebrating Christmas with his relatives in Testament, Virginia, when Dean shows up with Marylou (having left his second wife, Camille, and their newborn baby, Amy, in San Francisco) and Ed Dunkel. Sal's Christmas plans are shattered, as Dean makes him long for the road. First they drive to New York, where they meet Carlo and party. Dean wants Sal to have sex with Marylou, but Sal declines. In Dean's Hudson, they depart from New York in January 1949 and make it to New Orleans. In Algiers, they stay with the morphine-addicted Old Bull Lee and his wife, Jane. Galatea Dunkel joins her husband in New Orleans while Sal, Dean and Marylou continue their trip. Once in San Francisco, Dean again leaves Marylou to be with Camille. Both of them stay briefly in a hotel, but soon she moves out, following a nightclub owner. Sal is alone and on Market Street has visions of past lives, birth and rebirth. Dean finds him and invites him to stay with his family. Together, they visit nightclubs and listen to Slim Gaillard and other jazz musicians. The stay ends on a sour note, and Sal departs, taking the bus back to New York.
Part Three In the spring of 1949, Sal takes a bus from New York to Denver. He is depressed and lonesome; none of his friends are around. After receiving some money, he leaves Denver for San Francisco to see Dean. Camille is pregnant and unhappy, and Dean has injured his thumb trying to hit Marylou for having sex with other men. Camille throws them out, and Sal invites Dean to come to New York, planning to travel further to Italy. They meet Galatea, who scolds Dean regarding his choices. After a night of jazz and drinking on Folsom Street in Little Harlem, they depart. On the way to Sacramento, they meet a "fag", who propositions them. Dean tries to hustle some money out of this but is turned down. During this part of the trip, Sal and Dean have ecstatic discussions having found "IT" and "TIME". In Denver, a brief argument shows the growing rift between the two, when Dean reminds Sal of his age, Sal being the older of the two. They get a 1947 Cadillac that needs to be taken to Chicago from a travel bureau. Dean drives most of the way, crazy, careless, often speeding at over , delivering the car in a disheveled state. By bus, they move on to Detroit and spend a night on Skid Row, Dean hoping to find his homeless father. From Detroit they share a ride to New York and arrive at Sal's aunt's new flat on Long Island. They go on partying in New York, where Dean meets Inez and gets her pregnant while his wife is expecting their second child.
Part Four In the spring of 1950, Sal gets the itch to travel again while Dean is working as a parking lot attendant in Manhattan, living with his girlfriend Inez. Sal notices that he has been reduced to simple pleasures—listening to basketball games and looking at erotic playing cards. By bus, Sal takes to the road again, passing Washington, D.C., Ashland, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, and eventually reaching Denver. There, he meets Stan Shephard, and the two plan to go to Mexico City when they learn that Dean has bought a car and is on the way to join them. In a rickety '37 Ford sedan the three set off across Texas to Laredo, where they cross the border. They are ecstatic, having left "everything behind us and entering a new and unknown phase of things". Their money buys more (10 cents for a beer), police are laid back, cannabis is readily available and people are curious and friendly. The landscape is magnificent. In Gregoria, they meet Victor, a local kid, who leads them to a bordello where they have their last grand party, dancing to mambo, drinking and having fun with prostitutes. In Mexico City, Sal becomes ill from dysentery and is "delirious and unconscious". Dean leaves him, and Sal later reflects: "When I got better I realized what a rat he was, but then I had to understand the impossible complexity of his life, how he had to leave me there, sick, to get on with his wives and woes."
Part Five Dean, having obtained divorce papers in Mexico, had first returned to New York to marry Inez, only to leave her and go back to Camille. After his recovery from dysentery, Sal returns to New York in the fall. He finds a girl, Laura, and plans to move with her to San Francisco. Sal writes to Dean about his plan to move to San Francisco. Dean writes back saying that he is willing to come and accompany Laura and Sal. Dean arrives more than five weeks early, but Sal is out taking a late-night walk alone. Sal returns home, sees a copy of Proust, and knows it is Dean's. Sal realizes his friend has arrived, but at a time when Sal does not have the money to relocate to San Francisco. On hearing this Dean makes the decision to head back to Camille, Sal's friend Remi Boncoeur denies Sal's request to give Dean a short lift to 40th Street on their way to a Duke Ellington concert at the Metropolitan Opera House. Sal's girlfriend Laura realizes this is a painful moment for Sal and prompts him for a response as the party drives off without Dean. Sal replies: "He'll be alright." Sal later reflects as he sits on a river pier under a New Jersey night sky about the roads and lands of America that he has traveled and states: "... I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty."
Characters
Kerouac often based his fictional characters on friends and family.Sandison, David. Jack Kerouac: An Illustrated Biography. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. 1999
Real-life person Character name Jack Kerouac Sal Paradise Gabrielle Kerouac (Jack Kerouac's mother) Sal Paradise's Aunt Joan Kerouac (born Haverty) Laura Alan Ansen Rollo Greb William S. Burroughs Old Bull Lee Joan Vollmer Adams Burroughs Jane Lee William S. Burroughs Jr. Ray Lee Julie Burroughs Dodie Lee Lucien Carr Damion Neal Cassady Dean Moriarty Neal Cassady Sr. Old Dean Moriarty Neal Cassady's cousin Sam Brady Carolyn Cassady Camille Jamie Cassady Joanie Moriarty Cathleen Cassady Amy Moriarty Bea Franco (Beatrice Kozera) Terry Allen Ginsberg Carlo Marx John Clellon Holmes Ian MacArthur Herbert Huncke Elmer Hassel William Holmes "Big Slim" Hubbard William Holmes "Big Slim" Hazard Ruth Gullion Rita Bettencourt Helen Gullion Mary Bettencourt Diana Hansen Inez Beverly Burford Babe Rawlins Bob Burford Ray Rawlins Dianne Orin Lee Ann Henri Cru Remi Boncœur Paul Blake (Jack Kerouac's brother-in-law) Rocco Al Hinkle Ed Dunkel Helen Hinkle Galatea Dunkel Bill Tomson Roy Johnson Helen Tomson (Bill Tomson's wife) Dorothy Johnson Jim Holmes Tommy Snark Gregorio Victor Frank Jeffries Stan Shepard Gene Pippin Gene Dexter Jinny Baker Lehrman Jinny Jones Victorino Tejera Victor Villanueva Walter Adams Walter Evans Jose García Villa Angel Luz García Ed Uhl Ed Wall Justin W. Brierly Denver D. Doll Ed White Tim Gray Joanie White (Ed White's sister) Betty Gray LuAnne Henderson Marylou Pauline Lucille Vicki Russell Dorie, "Tall redhead" Rhoda Mona Ed Stringham Tom Saybrook Kells Elvins Dale Lorraine Marie Alan Harrington Hal Hingham Ginger Chase Peaches Haldon "Hal" Chase Chad King Allan Temko Roland Major Gregory La Cava "The famous director" Mr. Snow
Production and publication After Kerouac dropped out of Columbia University, he served as a Merchant Marine on several different sailing vessels, before returning to New York to write. He met and mixed with Beat Generation figures Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Neal Cassady. Between 1947 and 1950, while writing what would become The Town and the City (1950), Kerouac engaged in the road adventures that would form On the Road. Kerouac carried small notebooks, in which much of the text was written as the eventful span of road trips unfurled. He started working on the first of several versions of the novel as early as 1948, based on experiences during his first long road trip in 1947, but he remained dissatisfied with the novel. Inspired by a 10,000-word rambling letter from Cassady, Kerouac, in 1950, outlined the "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose" and decided to tell the story of his years on the road with Cassady, as if writing a letter to a friend in a form that reflected the improvisational fluidity of jazz. In a letter to a student in 1961, Kerouac wrote: "Dean and I were embarked on a journey through post-Whitman America to FIND that America and to FIND the inherent goodness in American man. It was really a story about two Catholic buddies, roaming the country, in search of God. And we found him."