"Although my aunt warned me that he would get me in trouble, I could hear a new call and see a new horizon, and believe it at my young age; and a little bit of trouble or even Dean's eventual rejection of me as a buddy, putting me down, as he would later, on starving sidewalks and sickbeds-what did it matter? I was a young writer and i wanted to take off. Somewhere along the line I knew there'd be girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me." --Pg. 8
Kerouac depicts the "road trip" through the personification of Dean. The narrator has never set foot in the West, and through Dean a "vision" has been created. The West being a "new horizon" in which entails a journey of growth; new experiences of defining oneself from their past ways, while taking those old experiences with them. Youth is a very important component to the road trip symbolizing time to allow the experiences "on the road" to mold the character of oneself. The narrator's dream of the West represented mostly through the spark of Dean, illustrates that there are no limits in his new journey as there is "everything".
Kerouac seems to portray "On The Road" in an optimistic manner with subtle remarks that are pessimistic. What effect does this carry over to the road trip?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"Although my aunt warned me that he would get me in trouble, I could hear a new call and see a new horizon, and believe it at my young age; and a little bit of trouble or even Dean's eventual rejection of me as a buddy, putting me down, as he would later, on starving sidewalks and sickbeds-what did it matter? I was a young writer and i wanted to take off. Somewhere along the line I knew there'd be girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me." --Pg. 8
ReplyDeleteI would have to choose this same quote as well to display how the author defines a road trip. This quote is driven by its focus on a theme of youth. "I could hear a new call and see a new horizon, and believe it at my young age...I was a young writer and i wanted to take off."
To Kerouac, it is the opportunity that one's youth gives some one the drive and the burning desire to drop everything they know and escape to an environment that is completely unfamiliar to him/her. His profession of being a "young writer" even gives him the excuse to argue that such an experience is almost necessary for his profession, so that he could develop as a better story teller and grow wiser through his travels.
Therefore, to Kerouac, a road trip is an occasion to live with abandon and explore his youth. Through a road trip, he can live with fierce passion and a lack of inhibition (much how his friend Dean lives his daily life) and use his experiences to develop his art.
So my question would be: "What other character traits/circumstances in life does the author have that even further fuels his youthful desire to "take off?"