On the Road: Reading Assignment #3

One important thing that I noticed about this section of the book was how much time the author spent talking about Dean, and trying to emphasize how strongly Sal looked up to him. In my opinion, he spent almost too much time trying to emphasize it. I began to become less interested in Sal the more I got to know about the character, because he became predictable. He is always doing something hip.

Another thing that I picked up on was the importance of the scene where Dean wants to watch Sal make love to Marylou, but when it comes time to, Sal refuses to do it. This in my opinion is conveying a message about being pressured into doing things that you are not comfortable, and being able to stand up for what you believe in. While reading this, I recalled in class when we were talking about Kerouac's life and it was mentioned how he left the military because he wasn't able to shoot a gun. I just was curious if there could be a connection between the two.

A connection that I made between this book and both The Grapes of Wrath and Candide was that they all had a similar philosophical leader within the story. In Candide it was Pangloss, in Grapes it was the Preacher, and in this book, particularly at the beginning of part 2, Dean seems to set him self as the philosophical leader of the novel. So far it was the only aspect of this novel that I began to think was deep at all. And that brings me to another point, which is that this novel doesn't seem deep at all. When reading Grapes, something about the way it is written makes it seem deep and full of emotion, unlike this book, which in my opinion is dull due to its lack of emotion. Other than that, I haven't got any complaints about the book. I find a lot to complain about, but I still enjoy reading it. I find his adventures exciting and peculiar, making them fairly interesting. I look forward to continuing the book.

On The Road : Reading 2

For some reason, this book is particularly hard to blog about. The authors writing style makes it extremely difficult to make a prediction about what is going to occur within the novel, due to his lack of a strong plot. The author is just explaining a series of events that take place, rather than having a conflict or a long term goal for the protagonist. It is a unique way of writing, but in my opinion, it does not add to the book. It's lack of conflict makes it so that the reader has no character to side with. It weakens the potential connections that can be made with the characters. Because there is no real bad guy, there is nothing that can make me want to be on the characters side. Author Kurt Vonnegut wrote that "good societies can be built only by pitting good against evil" and in my opinion the same rule can be applied to books. With that in mind, how can the average reader be captivated by such a book? If the reader doesn't care about what will happen to the character, what is their incentive to continue reading the book? It seems to me that the authors forget that one of the main goals of a book is to interest readers.

I've noticed that this style of writing seemed to be fairly popular with the writers of that time period. One in particular that I'm thinking of is Hubert Selby Jr. He wrote in a similar manner, which was very interesting and powerful, yet failed to prompt the reader to continue reading. I understand that it was the literary movement of the time, and it takes a whole new approach to writing novels, but for me it just gets old fast. It also doesn't leave much to talk about. There seems to be little or no symbolism within this sort of novel, no strong underlying themes or messages, and fairly basic word choice. There is no imagery that stands out like in Thousand Cranes or Grapes of Wrath. It is fairly plain.

With all that negative talk, it would seem as though I really hate this book, which is certainly not the case. So far I have greatly enjoyed reading it, and find it very entertaining. It has a lot of interesting quotes, which is something that I tend to look for in a book. It is intriguing to see the adventures that Sal goes on, in his semi-vagrant lifestyle. It's a decently fun read. One thing that I've noticed is that the characters created by Kerouac don't seem to be of very great importance to the story. Something about them seems almost as if they're disposable. Although, I suppose it adds to the idea about how Sal is constantly moving from one place to the other. Other than that, I haven't got much else to say about the book. It is unusual, and even though I've got a lot of complaints about it, I'm still enjoying it, and am looking forward to continuing on with it.