On the Road - Jack Kerouac

Largely known as one of the greatest American novels of the 20th Century, 'On the Road' is a partly autobiographical tale of 'Sal Paradise' (Kerouac), his erratic companion 'Dean Moriarty' (Kerouac's real-life friend Neal Cassady)and their travels around Northern America.

The novel is set in the late 1940s, when young Sal Paradise is living in New York; with the opening line of "I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up", the reader immediately senses that the protagonist is at a place in his life where the future is uncertain and unclear; this sets the tone of the entire book.

For the duration of the novel, 'Paradise' is travelling from New York to other parts of America, notably San Francisco, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles; thus attributing to the name 'On the Road'. Kerouac describes in vivid detail his experiences of the memorable characters on his journey and at his many destinations; the reader almost envies the excitement and ease at which 'Paradise' hitch-hikes for days on end constantly surrounded by interesting and charismatic people.

Whilst reading, there is the ever present influence of 'Dean Moriarty', who 'Paradise' views with the utmost respect and love; even at times when his actions and sanity are highly debatable. 'Moriarty' has various fixations include drugs, women, his father and family life; but at time the seemingly idiosyncratic 'Moriarty' focuses on very in depth subjects, such as intellectualism and moral philosophies.

Kerouac's continuous use of spontaneous prose, which some readers may find hard to adjust to, is the perfect grammatical tool to express the spirited and impromptu lifestyle which is described throughout the novel. It may not come as a surprise that when writing his first draft, Kerouac was reported to type the entire text on what was known as a 'scroll', a piece manuscript one hundred and twenty-foot long, which was then cut up at appropriate 'chapters'.

In my opinion, 'On the Road' is a perfect testimonial to life in mid-20th century America. The actions and events described are fascinating and almost alien to life in the modern day; the idea of simply dropping everything to travel with friends, with no money, transport or plans is rarely performed in today's society. I conclude that 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac is truly deserving of its title as a 'modern day classic'.