Jack Kerouac On the Road Journal #2

While reading On The Road, there are a few thoughts that keep circling through my head. Mainly, I have a vision of Sal, walking down dusty roads, hoping for rides from strangers in the west. I think about the freedom he owns, the absolute ideal that he has imposed upon himself. In the writing, Sal does what he feels, and every option is a good one, every experience is important, and all of the trip is an adventure. Somehow, the pessimist in me is destroyed. For example, when Sal is stuck just outside of LA and is out of money, my only thought was wondering how he was going to get out of this one. The sense adventure is so present that the book reads more like a fantasy novel than a memoir. There is never a sense of pause, never a moment where the characters motives are questioned. There is only the road, and Sal. There is only a sense of anticipation as to what he will do next. Kerouac's real skill as a writer is shown in what Sal does. Kerouac is able to make the mundane an adventure. For instance, for a brief period of time, Sal is a security guard in a barracks complex for men about to be shipped off to WWII. As a whole the job sounds like a bore. Everyday Sal takes his rounds, checking in on the men and trying to stay awake. It would be easy for Kerouac to simply gloss over this passage in Sal's life, to state the obvious then move on, but he doesn't. Kerouac creates a story from the chapter. He enriches character, both Sal's and the people around him. It allows the reader to really understand why Sal absorbs things the way that he does. The reader is allowed to grasp not only the situation, not only the setting, but the character themselves.