On The Road Archetypes

Jack Kerouac's On the Road is a clear representation of the Beat Generation, a youth subculture of the 1940s and '50s that rejected the societal norm. It is a novel clearly of ideas and characters more than plot, and through the adventure of the Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty , the reader can imagine rebellious American youth and their attempts to destroy the cultural instruction they had been given in order to follow the white middle-class life. Kerouac's novel follows the jazz and the energy of the time. The book tells the story of four cross-country journeys of two friends, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, the fictional alter-egos of Kerouac and iconic Beat writer Neil Cassady. Five archetypes that analyze Jack Kerouac’s On the Road are the
Sal and Dean rebel against society by going on this long journey across the country, with a carefree attitude and sense of adventure. “"That’s right, man, now you’re talking." And a kind of holy lightning I saw flashing from his excitement and his visions, which he described so torrentially that people in buses looked around to see the "overexcited nut." In the West he’d spent a third of his time in the poolhall, a third in jail, and a third in the public library. They’d seen him rushing eagerly down the winter streets, bareheaded, carrying books to the poolhall, or climbing trees to get into the attics of buddies where he spent days reading or hiding from the law.” (Kerouac 3) Dean is a man who waits for adventure and something exciting to come. When he first met the newly divorced Sal, he knew he had to jump on board on Sal’s adventure. However, Dean is a character in which the readers can feel pity for. He does not recognize that he is a mess, and that makes him even more of a mess. He runs around from one city to the next, one woman to the next, one car to the next, wrecking most of these on the way and feeling the need to move again once he gets to wherever he thought he wanted to be. The social dilemma apparent in the novel is the youth of the Beat
Since this novel is a narrative of a young man with other men, he often uses slang when speaking to them. “…But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies…” (Kerouac 3) Sal was explaining the madness of Dean and how careless he was. The other rhetorical tool the author uses is symbolism. Dean and Sal drive a Cadillac across country to Chicago. Or rather, they start with a Cadillac, and they end up with a big hunk of destroyed metal. Dean’s mad, fast driving, and his dangerous lifestyle causes for the car to get worn out. The Cadillac is an American car, and a big beautiful Cadillac is all tied up with the Big Beautiful American Dream. The Beat Generation is rebelling against the American Dream, and destroying in it their trips across country with their dangerous lifestyles. “At intermissions we rushed out in the Cadillac and tried to pick up girls all up and down Chicago. They were frightened of our big, scarred, prophetic car. In his mad frenzy Dean backed up smack on hydrants and tittered maniacally. By nine o’clock the car was an utter wreck; the brakes weren’t working anymore; the fenders were stove in; the rods were rattling. Dean couldn’t stop it at red lights; it kept kicking convulsively over the roadway. It had paid the price of the night. It was a muddy boot and no longer a shiny limousine.” (Kerouac 205) It is evident that Dean’s carelessness had led to the