Gender Roles And Objectification Of Women In 'On The Road'
Guadalupe Alejandre
Professor K. Cunningham
English 100
1 April 2014
Beat Generation: Keeping Women in the Shadows
Gender roles and objectification of women has always been an issue in America even in today’s society. Gender roles are the social and behavioral “norms” that are appropriate for a man or a woman. Objectification is often heard when talking about women, and it is when something or someone is treated as an object rather than a human being. In On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a great example of America’s way of viewing women. On the Road is during a time period of change; regardless of the change happening women somehow were still treated unequally. In On the Road and real life women tend to be looked down on and are expected to know and do the “normal” things any women should like cook, clean, and especially have lots of sex with men due to this women are seen as objects and gender roles keep existing.
On the Road novel has two main characters being Sal Paradise and Dean …show more content…
Moriarty. The novel takes place in the years 1947 to 1950, during the “beat” generation. Throughout the novel they go on many road trips, and go on many adventures leaving their women behind. The whole storyline brings up the topic of gender roles. Since the novel is largely autobiographical it brings out the reality of gender roles during the 1950s. Also the novel lets people into Jack Kerouac’s mind because Sal Paradise is the Kerouac’s alter ego; therefore what Sal says could be the real thoughts of Jack Kerouac.
It is easy enough to see that the society presented in the novel On the Road embodies a value that makes the fictional characters unhappy with their relationships with others.
Many characters seem to be unsatisfied with their love life and their frustration often leads to violent acts. Women are in an inferior position throughout the novel. For instance, there is a division of labor according to sex and better known as gender role which implies that the home is the place for women and the men are only there when they have free time. One example of this is when Sal visits a ranching family and the husband is free to relax and enjoy himself while his “housewife” prepares the food. Sal praises all the food that is there, but he also realizes that the wife complains about the “rural solitude” (Kerouac 64). The narrator knows that the wife is not happy with a life at home and that she would like some of the freedom that her husband thinks he deserves just because he is a
man.
It is obvious that the female characters in the novel are frustrated in their daily lives and that the negative feelings often lead to tensions between the couples, which sometimes result in verbal or physical assault. One of the worst functioning relationships described in the novel is the one between Sal’s French friend Remi Boncoeur and his wife Lee Ann. Sal perception of Lee Ann and her marriage to Remi is:
She was a fetching hunk, a honey-coloured creature, but there was hate in her eyes for both of us. Her ambition was to marry a rich man. She came from a small town in Oregon. She rued the day she ever took up with Remi. On one of his big showoff week-ends he spent a hundred dollars on her and she thought she’d found an heir. Instead she was hung up in this shack, and for the lack of anything else she had to stay there. (Kerouac 61).
In this quote the narrator is saying that Lee Ann is beautiful physically but inside she is evil. Lee Ann wanted to marry a rich man and when she found out her husband was not rich just a show off she became unhappy (Kerouac 64). She is even unhappy because their relationship, which is built upon traditional gender roles, becomes a frustrating restriction of their lives. Lee Ann seems to believe that the only way to become rich is through marriage and Remi obviously thinks that in order to please a woman he has to buy her a lot of gifts. In this example both the man and the woman are wrong because people should earn and work for what they have. Lee Ann is doing wrong in not seeing a future for herself and only believing that through a man she can be successful and not by her own weight, but that is the way society is set up. Therefore since society sets up women for failure, Lee Ann and many other women have to rely on their husbands and cannot rely on themselves. Remi is wrong because he thinks he can trick women into marrying him and also because he thinks women have a price tag. Ann Lee’s price tag was only 100 bucks and that sealed the deal.
Sal and Dean travel across the continent and are around different society groups. On Sal’s first trip to the west he meets a girl named Rita Bettencourt “a nice little girl, simple and true, and tremendously frightened of sex” (Kerouac 51). Sal tries to convince her that sex is “beautiful”, but she is not convinced. The following day Sal is thinking about the lack of communication between girls and boys and the problems with the American way of dating. Sal thinks that courtship was old fashioned and everyone should have sex if you want to. Sal does not believe in the social code of American dating. He feels sorry for Rita for fearing sex and he makes it seem as if she is wrong for wanting to be pure. It could have been that Sal just wanted sex and was going use Rita as an object for pleasure and nothing more. Even though he makes it seem as if he was a philosopher, he is actually just another man trying to use women for what they were “made” for.
It is not difficult to believe that if the middle-class women presented in the novel have troubled lives, that it will be even worse for those who belong to the lower classes. The problems these women have are real problems. Unmarried or divorced women have to be strong and manage to support themselves and their families despite the fact that male dominate the work force. One of the mothers is Frankie, Sal’s woman friend in Denver (Kerouac 197). She is poor and lives in a trailer which says to us that she is not like all women. She is one of the very few females who are characterized in a language surprisingly full of respect. The male Beats seem to approve of her tough masculine style.
It is evident that Frankie’s status as an underdog makes her popular with the male Beats.
Frankie acts just like men; she likes drinking, parties and music, and her way of living apparently impresses Sal and his friends. Even though she is at the bottom of society, she apparently enjoys life and at the same time supports her children unlike other women who have it “easy” but seem to be so unbelievably unhappy (Kerouac 200). Frankie has some type of power when it comes to Sal and his friends. She has accomplished what no woman has been able to do, and that is get respect from them. It may seem like triumph but in fact it is the opposite. The only reason she is accepted is because she has adopted a male manner, and that is the only way she can ever be seen as an equal. It has now been shown that American women of all social classes seem to be in a difficult situation in On the Road. In “What We Really Miss about the 1950s” by Stephanie Coontz it implies that people have the wrong impression of the 1950s. With On the Road it is obvious that Stephanie Coontz was on point when she talks about everyone having the wrong interpretation of that time period but thankfully to Kerouac’s novel we see the other side of the coin. Dean Moriarty, Sal’s good friend sees women only for their body parts like many men do. Dean also views relationships as a game; evidence to that statement is he has had three wives in such a short period of time. Marylou is Dean’s first wife who he has a baby with and always leaves her behind. Dean knows that Marylou has no options and he can do as he pleases because she will always take him back; another reason why Dean gets a second wife. Camille, Dean’s wife is described by Sal as a brunette and he talks about her body more than about her actual self (Kerouac 37). Dean’s Third wife goes by the name of Inez and is also used by Dean as a sex toy. Marylou, Camille, and Inez are all of Dean’s property. In the 1950s unmarried people had sex more than unmarried people have sex now and “nonmarital birth rates” were much higher too (Coontz 35). That could only mean men had a way to get into women’s heads and legs obviously by making them feel unworthy. The way they are described throughout the novel would make them feel unworthy and insecure because they were described owning a piece of land or even owning slaves. Even Terry, Sal’s Mexican girlfriend is objectified. Sal describes her as “the cutest little Mexican girl in slacks. […] Her breasts stuck out straight out and true; her little flanks looked delicious...” (Kerouac 73). From that quote you can see that they all have the image of the perfect woman, her breasts have to be great and she has to be a stay at home wife and God forbid she has a mind of her own! In I love Lucy a melodrama from the 1950s shows how women got into trouble by wanting a career or “hatching some hare-brained scheme behind her husband’s back” (Coontz 33). Example after example of how frustrated women have been and it is only up to them to make a change. Watching shows like that could have possibly brainwashed women into not believing in themselves.
Ultimately for Sal and Dean Women may always be just objects to them, as well as for Jack Kerouac. Women have come a long way and men have too. No one is perfect but if people as whole and not as gender keep doing what they are doing, things can get done. Women have started to find their place in society and men have started to accept that idea. You see more stay at home Dads and breadwinning Moms, which would have been unheard of during the beat generation. Maybe the beat generation was the reason why women could not move forward, or maybe it was just society as whole; regardless what it was things can only get better.
Work Cited
Coontz, Stephanie. “What we really miss about the 1950s.” Rereading America Cultural: Contexts for Criticism Thinking and Writing Ed. Gary Colorado, Robert Cullen, Bonnie Lisle. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2013.27-44
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. 1957. London: Penguin Books, 1972.
Professor K. Cunningham
English 100
1 April 2014
Beat Generation: Keeping Women in the Shadows
Gender roles and objectification of women has always been an issue in America even in today’s society. Gender roles are the social and behavioral “norms” that are appropriate for a man or a woman. Objectification is often heard when talking about women, and it is when something or someone is treated as an object rather than a human being. In On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a great example of America’s way of viewing women. On the Road is during a time period of change; regardless of the change happening women somehow were still treated unequally. In On the Road and real life women tend to be looked down on and are expected to know and do the “normal” things any women should like cook, clean, and especially have lots of sex with men due to this women are seen as objects and gender roles keep existing.
On the Road novel has two main characters being Sal Paradise and Dean …show more content…
Moriarty. The novel takes place in the years 1947 to 1950, during the “beat” generation. Throughout the novel they go on many road trips, and go on many adventures leaving their women behind. The whole storyline brings up the topic of gender roles. Since the novel is largely autobiographical it brings out the reality of gender roles during the 1950s. Also the novel lets people into Jack Kerouac’s mind because Sal Paradise is the Kerouac’s alter ego; therefore what Sal says could be the real thoughts of Jack Kerouac.
It is easy enough to see that the society presented in the novel On the Road embodies a value that makes the fictional characters unhappy with their relationships with others.
Many characters seem to be unsatisfied with their love life and their frustration often leads to violent acts. Women are in an inferior position throughout the novel. For instance, there is a division of labor according to sex and better known as gender role which implies that the home is the place for women and the men are only there when they have free time. One example of this is when Sal visits a ranching family and the husband is free to relax and enjoy himself while his “housewife” prepares the food. Sal praises all the food that is there, but he also realizes that the wife complains about the “rural solitude” (Kerouac 64). The narrator knows that the wife is not happy with a life at home and that she would like some of the freedom that her husband thinks he deserves just because he is a
man.
It is obvious that the female characters in the novel are frustrated in their daily lives and that the negative feelings often lead to tensions between the couples, which sometimes result in verbal or physical assault. One of the worst functioning relationships described in the novel is the one between Sal’s French friend Remi Boncoeur and his wife Lee Ann. Sal perception of Lee Ann and her marriage to Remi is:
She was a fetching hunk, a honey-coloured creature, but there was hate in her eyes for both of us. Her ambition was to marry a rich man. She came from a small town in Oregon. She rued the day she ever took up with Remi. On one of his big showoff week-ends he spent a hundred dollars on her and she thought she’d found an heir. Instead she was hung up in this shack, and for the lack of anything else she had to stay there. (Kerouac 61).
In this quote the narrator is saying that Lee Ann is beautiful physically but inside she is evil. Lee Ann wanted to marry a rich man and when she found out her husband was not rich just a show off she became unhappy (Kerouac 64). She is even unhappy because their relationship, which is built upon traditional gender roles, becomes a frustrating restriction of their lives. Lee Ann seems to believe that the only way to become rich is through marriage and Remi obviously thinks that in order to please a woman he has to buy her a lot of gifts. In this example both the man and the woman are wrong because people should earn and work for what they have. Lee Ann is doing wrong in not seeing a future for herself and only believing that through a man she can be successful and not by her own weight, but that is the way society is set up. Therefore since society sets up women for failure, Lee Ann and many other women have to rely on their husbands and cannot rely on themselves. Remi is wrong because he thinks he can trick women into marrying him and also because he thinks women have a price tag. Ann Lee’s price tag was only 100 bucks and that sealed the deal.
Sal and Dean travel across the continent and are around different society groups. On Sal’s first trip to the west he meets a girl named Rita Bettencourt “a nice little girl, simple and true, and tremendously frightened of sex” (Kerouac 51). Sal tries to convince her that sex is “beautiful”, but she is not convinced. The following day Sal is thinking about the lack of communication between girls and boys and the problems with the American way of dating. Sal thinks that courtship was old fashioned and everyone should have sex if you want to. Sal does not believe in the social code of American dating. He feels sorry for Rita for fearing sex and he makes it seem as if she is wrong for wanting to be pure. It could have been that Sal just wanted sex and was going use Rita as an object for pleasure and nothing more. Even though he makes it seem as if he was a philosopher, he is actually just another man trying to use women for what they were “made” for.
It is not difficult to believe that if the middle-class women presented in the novel have troubled lives, that it will be even worse for those who belong to the lower classes. The problems these women have are real problems. Unmarried or divorced women have to be strong and manage to support themselves and their families despite the fact that male dominate the work force. One of the mothers is Frankie, Sal’s woman friend in Denver (Kerouac 197). She is poor and lives in a trailer which says to us that she is not like all women. She is one of the very few females who are characterized in a language surprisingly full of respect. The male Beats seem to approve of her tough masculine style.
It is evident that Frankie’s status as an underdog makes her popular with the male Beats.
Frankie acts just like men; she likes drinking, parties and music, and her way of living apparently impresses Sal and his friends. Even though she is at the bottom of society, she apparently enjoys life and at the same time supports her children unlike other women who have it “easy” but seem to be so unbelievably unhappy (Kerouac 200). Frankie has some type of power when it comes to Sal and his friends. She has accomplished what no woman has been able to do, and that is get respect from them. It may seem like triumph but in fact it is the opposite. The only reason she is accepted is because she has adopted a male manner, and that is the only way she can ever be seen as an equal. It has now been shown that American women of all social classes seem to be in a difficult situation in On the Road. In “What We Really Miss about the 1950s” by Stephanie Coontz it implies that people have the wrong impression of the 1950s. With On the Road it is obvious that Stephanie Coontz was on point when she talks about everyone having the wrong interpretation of that time period but thankfully to Kerouac’s novel we see the other side of the coin. Dean Moriarty, Sal’s good friend sees women only for their body parts like many men do. Dean also views relationships as a game; evidence to that statement is he has had three wives in such a short period of time. Marylou is Dean’s first wife who he has a baby with and always leaves her behind. Dean knows that Marylou has no options and he can do as he pleases because she will always take him back; another reason why Dean gets a second wife. Camille, Dean’s wife is described by Sal as a brunette and he talks about her body more than about her actual self (Kerouac 37). Dean’s Third wife goes by the name of Inez and is also used by Dean as a sex toy. Marylou, Camille, and Inez are all of Dean’s property. In the 1950s unmarried people had sex more than unmarried people have sex now and “nonmarital birth rates” were much higher too (Coontz 35). That could only mean men had a way to get into women’s heads and legs obviously by making them feel unworthy. The way they are described throughout the novel would make them feel unworthy and insecure because they were described owning a piece of land or even owning slaves. Even Terry, Sal’s Mexican girlfriend is objectified. Sal describes her as “the cutest little Mexican girl in slacks. […] Her breasts stuck out straight out and true; her little flanks looked delicious...” (Kerouac 73). From that quote you can see that they all have the image of the perfect woman, her breasts have to be great and she has to be a stay at home wife and God forbid she has a mind of her own! In I love Lucy a melodrama from the 1950s shows how women got into trouble by wanting a career or “hatching some hare-brained scheme behind her husband’s back” (Coontz 33). Example after example of how frustrated women have been and it is only up to them to make a change. Watching shows like that could have possibly brainwashed women into not believing in themselves.
Ultimately for Sal and Dean Women may always be just objects to them, as well as for Jack Kerouac. Women have come a long way and men have too. No one is perfect but if people as whole and not as gender keep doing what they are doing, things can get done. Women have started to find their place in society and men have started to accept that idea. You see more stay at home Dads and breadwinning Moms, which would have been unheard of during the beat generation. Maybe the beat generation was the reason why women could not move forward, or maybe it was just society as whole; regardless what it was things can only get better.
Work Cited
Coontz, Stephanie. “What we really miss about the 1950s.” Rereading America Cultural: Contexts for Criticism Thinking and Writing Ed. Gary Colorado, Robert Cullen, Bonnie Lisle. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2013.27-44
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. 1957. London: Penguin Books, 1972.