Name: Deep Minhas
Date: Thursday, February 28, 2013
On the Road
Sal Paradise is a young writer who travels to many places. During the spring, Sal chooses to go on the road. He arrives in Chicago where he meets up with his friends Tim Gray, Betty, Roland Major, Ray Rawlins and Babe Rawlins. When the party in Central City turns out to be a disaster, Sal and his friends decide to go back to Denver feeling depressed. In Denver, he joins his friends Dean and Carlo and they buy him an apartment. During this time, Sal tries finding a perfect girl but fails so he heads back to the road to accompany his friend Remi in San Francisco. Remi and Sal start working as security guards on a military base for a short period. With this, Remi’s girlfriend is ready to kick them both out. The first interesting fact that I noticed would be Dean was released from jail when he met Sal. This is interesting because compared to Sal’s other friends, he isn’t intellectual, he’s a criminal and cheat. Another interesting fact would be Sal is a writer. It’s interesting because it gives Sal a purpose for travelling from one place to another. Third interesting fact is that Carlo is a poet. This expands Sal’s friendship with him as they both are writers. Interesting fact number four would be that Sal has dated Remi’s current girlfriend, Lee Anne. This creates tension in the story because Remi worries if Lee Anne will leave him for Sal. The last interesting fact would be that Sal is fascinated by Dean. This is interesting because it makes the readers wonder what Sal finds fascinating about Dean.
When I was reading the book, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, I felt that the author used more than one tone through his characters. On page 49, Sal describes his organized party as, “teenagers, drunk, disheveled, excited-they ruined our party.” I believe that the author used an upset tone to describe this sentence. This is because Sal was hoping for a well maintained party that he and his friends would enjoy. As described in the text, things didn’t go to well according to his plan. On page 63, Sal’s friend, Remi attempts to steal money from one of the rooms in the hotel, a guard angrily responds saying “Another