On The Road

Jack Kerouac was born in Massachusetts, in 1922. Kerouac quit school and joined the Merchant Marine, starting the travels which would become ‘On the Road’ his most acclaimed novel. It is said to be an account of Kerouac's ("Sal Paradise’s") travels with Neal Cassady ("Dean Moriarty"). According to Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac typed the first draft of On the Road on a fifty-foot long roll of paper.

On the Road gave an outlet of release for the dissatisfied young generation of the late forties and early fifties. And although it has been fifty years since the events in On the Road, the feelings, ideas and experiences in the novel are still fresh as expressions of restless, idealistic youth who need something more than the dull harmonies of the generally prosperous society.

During the winter of 1947, the reckless and joyous Dean Moriarty, recently out of another term in jail and newly married, comes to New York and meets Sal Paradise, a young writer with a sharp group of friends. Dean fascinates Sal, and this friendship begins three years of journeys back and forth across the country.

Sal had heard all about Dean from Chad King, who Dean used to write to from jail, and was intrigued. Dean spoke formally, in long rambling sentences and Sal's first impression of Dean is that he was like a young Gene Autry.

He likes Dean because of his exuberance, eagerness, uneducated intelligence, and what he sees as Dean's Western spirit, which is much different from Sal's o...