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Milijana Ivo

Dr Amy Mohr

Road Narratives in American Film and Fiction

26 February 2013

The Search for Home and Family: The Curved Roads That Lead Back

Home – A Desire For Family in Jack Kerouac’s On The Road

The search for peace of heart and mind precipitates and

drives the journeys of the characters in Jack Kerouac’s On the

Road. In a sense, these characters are on a path (“the road”) of

searching for a sense of both psycho-emotional and physical rest.

In this search for a better way of life and living, characters

such as Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty set on a path of self-

realization and self-discovery, each (and some of their friends

too) trying to realize and fulfill their notion of an ideal

lifestyle. The search for a better life for both Sal and Dean is

invariably laced with a desire not to conform to the status quo;

a desire to chart their own paths in life different form what the

society in which they live considers the norm. For instance,

concerning Sal Paradise, he begins his travels across the US just

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after he divorces his wife. In a sense therefore, having failed

to find happiness in what society promises is a source of

happiness for ‘normal’ adult men – marriage – he decides to chart

his course and find his own happiness according to his own terms.

On his part, Dean Moriarty eschews many of the entities,

institutions and practices that the society considers to be the

norm. Dean is essentially a free spirit who revels in being a

maverick and a non-conformist, sometimes even to the detriment of

the relationships he has with his friends. He befriends many

different women, and lives with them temporarily until he finds

the next thing that excites his fancy. His lifestyle is

completely unlike what others in his society would consider to be

the norm for a grown adult man. In the end, however, after

travelling many roads and experiences the cultures and lifestyles

of different people, Sal begins to long for the very things that

he desired to be rid of such as marriages. Sal sees the futility

of living a life of travel and partying and freedom. Dean

meanwhile is constantly seeking out his father – an authority

figure in his life that symbolizes the restriction of freedom.

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Dean’s father had abandoned theme when Dean was a child.

Therefore, even though Sal and Dean seek to be different, free,

without responsibilities and seemingly in no committed love

relationships, they are unwittingly seeking a sense of belonging,

love and family that has been denied them at some point in their

lives.

The Desire to be Free

Sal’s journeys and excursions throughout the US are

essentially an expression of a desire to experience a freedom

from the restrictions and responsibilities of adult life. Known

as the Beat Generation, the ideal lifestyle expressed by the post

WWII generation in the US entailed a desire to be nonconformist

(Spangler 310). After the Second World War, the surreal

experience of the war, and the near catastrophic edge that the

armies of Nazi Germany and its allies had pushed the entire world

forced the Beat Generation into introspection. Ideally, the Beat

Generation was concerned about such metaphysical questions as

what the meaning of life was, and how to best live life, as the

war had led them to realize that life was precious and short

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(Spangler 310). The Beat Generation thus desired to disentangle

itself from all forms of lifestyles that defined the status quo

before the Second World War. Stable jobs, long-term marriages,

commitment to singular goals, and overall ‘by-the-book’

lifestyles were shunned for more adventurous, explorative

lifestyles. Both Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty epitomize the

adventurous nature of the Beat Generation. Both are in search of

entities and goals that they feel will guide them towards living

more fulfilled lives compared to the kind of lives they have

lived before: essentially, both men are on a soul-searching

mission. Sal seeks to find a sense of peace that is indefinable

yet signifies the fulfillment of his sense of self-actualization

and self-discovery. When he sets out initially, Sal states that

“Somewhere along the line I knew there would be girls, visions,

everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to

me” (Kerouac 31). This search for freedom is however linked to a

dislike and loathing for all things that restrict freedom –

particularly long-term relationships (including marriages),

extended and long-term job opportunities and practices, and even

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friendships that betray a hint of long-term commitment. Both Sal

and Dean eschew being in marriages and long-term committed

relationships with women. After his divorce, Sal seeks out women

for ephemeral pleasures and sooner leaves them in search for new

and fresher challenges. Dean on his part engages women for brief

periods, and has been married twice yet still desires the brief

companionship of women he meets in party scenes and other social

places. Both Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty do not hold jobs for

extended periods. It is as if the idea of maintaining a job for

long pins them down to a particular place (both geographically

and psychologically), and being keen on discovery and travel,

they both quickly quit from the many jobs that they undertake.

Sal works as a night watchman very briefly before quitting to

continue with his travel, while Dean is constantly changing jobs.

Ideally, once they receive some form of monetary pay from these

brief work engagements, they quickly think about using the money

for travel and partying, until the money is completely spent,

and they again need to work, but only to gain an income that they

use for travelling. This pattern of work-and-travel defines their

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desire to keep on exploring and discovering themselves

(especially for Sal, since Dean is in essence a free spirit by

his very nature). The search for Sal’s elusive “pearl” defines

their desire to be free, free from any responsibilities that will

tie them down permanently to a place; and free from any entities

that the society would define as the norm – such as marriages and

family.

Expression of Male Dominance and Masculinity

The search for freedom and a sense of self for Sal is tied

to the manner in which he expresses his masculinity vis-à-vis his

engagements with women. Ditto Dean Moriarty. In a sense, an

escape from a committed relationship to a single woman (for

instance in marriage) and an ability to engage in fickle short

term relationships expresses the freedom that both Sal and Dean

seek. Additionally, Sal and Dean’s masculine expressions are

unfortunately at the expense of having proper relationships with

women. Dean is openly cruel and rude to the women in his life. He

constantly leaves his second wife Camille with their child and

runs off to party and travel. His relationships with some of the

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women he engages with, such as Marylou, are violent and plagued

with mistrust.

Dean likes to be the center of attention and the focal

entity in any engagement, endeavor or situation in which he is.

His desire for dominance can be attributed to his desire to

express his masculinity in any and all situations (Mortenson 51).

In a sense, Dean escapes from being accountable (and thus

maintains his freedom) by ensuring that all the relationships he

engages in follow his terms only. He dominates his relationships

with women and even his male friends (including Sal) in a desire

to showcase his masculinity and subsequently maintain his

freedom. Dean is able to scrupulously maintain his dominance in

relationships by bolting out any time the balance of power in

these relationships begins to shift to the other party. For

instance, whenever his second wife Camille begins to demand that

he fulfils his responsibilities as a husband and father, he runs

of to his other women, or starts to attend all manner of parties

and visits his friends, all in an effort to maintain his dominant

masculine nature in the relationship with Camille. In the case of

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his relationship with Marylou, he conveniently leaves her

whenever he feels that she is getting too close to him, sometimes

even using threats of violence in order to keep Marylou “in her

place”.

Dean Moriarty’s lack of commitment for any cause or

relationship is traceable to his own relationship (or lack

thereof) with his father. In a sense, Dean is on an extended

journey in search of his vagabond father, with whom he has never

had a proper father-son relationship. This sense of loss as

regards a lack of a father figure in his life has haunted Dean

into his adult life, and he appears to have a distorted sense of

masculine expression (Napelee 72). According to Dean’s own

understanding (derived from his own experience with his father)

of manhood, the more detached from those close to you one is, the

more masculine one becomes (Napelee 73). In the many journeys and

travels across the US that he takes (and even outside the US into

Mexico), he is constantly on the lookout for his father. In an

attempt to fill this gap in his sense of self (a gap as a result

of a lack of a proper relationship with his father) Dean overly

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expresses what is his own understanding of manhood. Similar to

the manner in which his father abandoned him, Dean consistently

and intermittently abandons his wives and children. He eschews

commitment and a sense of responsibility – mirroring the life of

his hobo father.

Sal similarly displays a dislike for commitment to long-term

relationships that defines his understanding of what an

expression of masculinity entails. Sal expresses a queer love for

the life that his friend Dean Moriarty lives. From the outset,

Sal continuously seeks to justify Dean’s erratic lifestyle to

their mutual friends and acquaintances. Sal views Dean as

expressing his ideal lifestyle insofar as seeking freedom and

being free is concerned: “he's got the secret that we're all

busting to find out,” (Kerouac 89) says Sal concerning his friend

Dean’s unsettled disposition and love for travel and freedom. By

opting for a divorce from his wife instead of opting to mend his

relationship with his wife, Sal – from the outset – sets out to

ensure that all the relationships he gets into with women do not

leave him similarly devastated. Sal’s notions on what it means to

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be a man are inevitably tied to his belief in being free. For

Sal, a ‘proper’ man is one who is free – free to travel, free to

relate with different women, and free to chose the kind of life

one wishes to live (Foxe 45).

‘The Road’ and the Search for Freedom and a New Meaning in Life

The road as a physical entity has both literal and symbolic

meaning in the Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. On the literal level,

the road directly implies the many roads, paths, and highways

that the major characters in the novel pass through in their

various numerous journeys. Even as a physical entity, the many

roads that the characters pass through ensure movement (and

sometimes progress) in the lives of the characters, especially

for Sal Paradise (Spangler 310). When Sal moves from one state to

another, he experiences the cultures of the different places he

visits and stays, utilizing the information and knowledge gained

for comparative purposes in relation to his life. This is

especially true when the particular road he is travelling in

leads him to the neighboring country of Mexico (Skinazi 86).

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The roads in the novel symbolize the journey to self-

actualization and freedom that characters such as Sal and Dean

seek. Sal is out to find an elusive state of freedom, shunning

all responsibilities that will tie and peg him down to a

particular place for extended periods. Sal and Dean are intent on

disassociating themselves from all entities that define ‘normal’

life in contemporary post World War II United States (Metz 65).

While the society in which they lived would define success

(especially for a man) as climbing the corporate or academic

ladder as well as raising a family, for Sal and Dean, their

definition of success hinges on moving as far away as is possible

from these identities of manhood imposed on them by society. The

Beat Generation thus seeks to find its own ‘roads’, because the

roads that they had been made to follow by society (and by

extension, the State) prior to World War II had almost brought

the world to an apocalyptic end going by the loss of life and

property experienced in the Second World War (Spangler 311). In a

way therefore, both Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty are keen to

prove the society in which they live wrong. Their objective (both

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individually and collectively) is to chart a path that ensures

that individual liberty and personal goals are not lost or

sacrificed on the altar of conformity. In a sense, conquering

the road provides a different state of accomplishment that

additionally confers a sense of freedom (Bill 396).

“Travelling in Circles”: The Lack of Progress in The Lives of Sal

and Dean As An Indicator of Their Unexpressed Desire For Love,

Family and A Sense of Belonging

While travel tends to define any coming of age story, this

is hardly the case with Sal and Dean. While Sal does experience a

sense of disillusionment with the life of constant travel and

partying, Dean steadfastly and defiantly holds on to this

lifestyle to the very end. Still, Sal retains his admiration for

Dean’s lifestyle to the very end, letting on the fact that Dean’s

travels and activities are constantly on his mind even after they

finally part ways, “I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old

Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean

Moriarty” (Kerouac 301). Therefore, the roads are ideally places

of enlightenment but not necessarily progress; of reflection but

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not necessarily active engagement; of discovery but no personal

advancement.

Ultimately, Sal and Dean are unwittingly seeking the very

sense of security and sense of belonging to family from which

they seek to escape. This can be seen in Sal and Dean’s obsession

with various aspects of family life. For Sal, his brief stay in

Mexico gave him a close up view of the importance of family and

community and the interaction between these two entities. Sal

gets sick with dysentery, and while his supposed friend Dean

leaves him, the Mexicans take proper care of him (Kerouac 158).

Additionally, while Sal largely enjoys the travels, he is

consistently plagued with an overwhelming sense of depression and

loneliness; betraying his desire to belong within a familial or

communal unit (Haslam 445). On the other hand, Dean’s desire for

a family-like set up (despite his fervent attempts at escaping

from the same) can be summed up with his stubborn desire to meet

up with his father who abandoned him when he was a child. In a

sense, Dean has never been able to overcome the sense of loss

that he felt as a fatherless child. Dean is thus stuck in an

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idealist past, a past where he lived within a home with both

parents, and with the attendant sense of security and love that

such a setting confers to a child. In seeking out his father,

Dean is essentially seeking out the sense of security and love

that a family setting bequeaths upon one. Ideally, until he is

able to overcome this sense of loss, he is unable to share the

love that bubbles within him with his family and friends

(Mortenson 62).

“Mexican Hospitality” in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees

The one instant that Sal recognizes the importance of strong

friendships anchored within a communal or familial context occurs

while Sal and Dean are in Mexico. After he is abandoned while

sick by Dean, he is taken care of until he is well by

acquaintances and virtual strangers in Mexico. Besides this one

instant, the Mexicans as portrayed in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

are happy go lucky persons intent only on partying and

celebrating. However, the critical difference between the

Mexicans and the Americans who visit (Sal, Dean and their

friends) is that the Mexicans are able to juggle the two balls of

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family-responsibility and desire-for-freedom. This ability to

balance these two critical yet sometime competing entities in

life ensures that the Mexicans are able to derive the benefits of

both worlds. Sal and Dean fail in this balancing act, and for

them it is all or nothing. Many of the Mexicans as portrayed in

the novel enjoy the party scene as much as Sal and Dean do, but

have homes and families to go back to after all the partying and

celebrating is done (Himmelwright 121). For Sal and Dean however,

even though as stated earlier they are unwittingly seeking for

the very sense of family they are intent on escaping from, family

responsibilities and freedom cannot go together.

It is while in Mexico that Sal finally concedes that his

friend Dean was narcissistic and selfish as concerns his

relationships with those around him. Sal had stubbornly denied

the accusations that many of their mutual friends had leveled on

Dean concerning his inability to establish true and reciprocal

friendships. In a way, Sal’s sojourn in Mexico – especially after

he gets sick – leads him to conclude that the life of constant

travel and endless partying had its drawbacks too. Therefore, the

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lifestyle of the people in Mexico plays a critical role in aiding

Sal to “see the light”. The sense of appreciation for family and

community as displayed by the Mexicans in Jack Kerouac’s On the

Road is similarly expressed by Esteban and Esperanza, and many

other Latinos in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees. As illegal

immigrants, many of these Latinos have had to tear away from

their families in their home countries in their attempts to chase

after the elusive American Dream. However, these illegal

immigrants are able to recreate a sense of family wherever they

are. Esteban and Esperanza, as well as the many other illegal

immigrants living atop Mattie’s shop live as though they are one

family (Kingsolver 194). This togetherness and camaraderie

enables them withstand the harsh realities of life as illegal

immigrants in the United States.

Esteban and Esperanza’s sense of family is expressed

powerfully in their agreement to act as Turtle’s parents so that

she is not taken away from Taylor (Kingsolver 245). Through this

act, Esteban and his wife show that they understand the

importance of family, and Esperanza cries genuinely when she is

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being prodded about being Turtle’s mother – an act that shows she

carries her identity as a mother in all contexts. Therefore,

ultimately, the portrayal of Latinos (Mexicans in the novel On the

Road and Guatemalans in the novel The Bean Trees) shows that they are

able to combine the normal endeavors of adult life with a keen

sense of fidelity to the family as an institution and entity that

confers security, peace and from which hope and love spring

eternal.

“Latino Hospitality” in Helena Viramonte’s Under the Feet of Jesus

More intricate similarities can be drawn between the

activities of the characters in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and

Helena Maria Viramonte’s Under the Feet of Jesus. Both Sal in On the

Road and Alejo in Under the Feet of Jesus fall sick, and have to be

taken care of in their paths to recovery. As stated earlier, Sal

is aided to recovery by virtual strangers in a hospital in

Mexico, far away from his native America. Alejo too falls sick

and the simple exercise of taking him to a clinic or hospital

requires the physical and financial expenditure of nearly every

member of Estrella’s family and friends (Viramontes 102). While

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at the clinic, Alejo’s sickness turns out to be beyond the scope

of the clinic’s medical staff expertise, and the nurse directs

Estrella, her mother and her family to take him to a bigger

hospital. With no money to ensure that Alejo will gain admittance

at the hospital, Estrella and her family had the option of giving

up and leaving Alejo’s fate to the gods (Cooper 370). However,

Estrella and other members of her family do all within their

powers and beyond in order to ensure that Alejo is able to gain

admittance at the hospital they are referred to by the nurse.

They use threats of physical violence on the nurse, and

forcefully take the little money they had paid at the clinic in

order to utilize it in the hospital they would take Alejo

(Viramontes 112). This episode contrasts sharply with Sal’s

situation after he falls sick with dysentery and his supposed

friend Dean abandons him. In the end, his newly found friends see

him through his recovery. This portrayal of a keen sense of

altruism and devotion to friends as exhibited by the Mexicans in

Under the Feet of Jesus as well as On the Road indicates their

appreciation for family and community.

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Family, as stated earlier, confers a sense of security that

leads those raised within such a context to desire such a blanket

of love and appreciation wrapped around them throughout their

lives. In the novel On the Road Dean Moriarty seeks out his

vagabond father if only so that he can experience the sense of

family that he feels he has missed since his father walked out of

their home. The same is true for Sal Paradise insofar as desiring

the sense of belonging and love that a family (or being in a

marriage) confers is concerned. Although Sal has divorced his

wife and now seeks a life of ‘freedom’ and feels the need to

disassociate himself with any commitment in relationships, his

ultimate longing throughout his many travel is to find ‘the girl’

– the one lady that will make him happy and show him love for as

long as he lives. Perfecto in The Bean Trees similarly keeps longing

for a past where he lived with his wife and children in a loving

family setting. Therefore this longing for family betrays a

desire for all the above-mentioned characters to exist within a

loving social context of family and community, however much these

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characters may seek to deny the same, or wish to run from the

same.

Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty in the novel On the Road are in

search of some form of freedom which they believe will make their

lives better and assert their manhood in a unique way, different

from what the society expects of them. Sal is thus in a state of

continuous travel and movement, on different roads, in search of

a sense of freedom from responsibilities such as marriage or

long-term jobs. Dean Moriarty epitomizes a free spirited

character, and his love for partying, discovery and travel is as

powerful as his inability to establish long-lasting friendship

relationships with both men and women is unfortunate. Sal and

Dean wish to be ‘different’ to the norms in their contemporary

society.

However, even as they seek to assert their freedom in a

society that values commitment to relationships, family

responsibilities and fidelity to long-term careers and jobs, they

are unwittingly betraying their desire for the very things they

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proclaim to dislike. Both Sal and Dean desire a sense of

belonging and security; signaled by Sal’s desire for a girl to

love him unconditionally, and Dean’s obsession with finding his

father. The Mexicans with whom Sal and Dean interact display a

sense of family that inevitably leaves Sal admiring such a

context. The Latino characters in the novels Under the Feet of Jesus

and The Bean Trees show that family and friends stick with their own

through the toughest of times and in share in the laughs during

the good times. As shown, Sal and Dean seek such a sense of

unconditional love, and therefore the many travels that they

undertake are not so much an exercise in seeking freedom, but a

search for the sense of love and belonging that they wish to

experience.

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Works Cited

Bill, Roger. "Traveller Or Tourist? Jack Kerouac And The

Commodification Of Culture." Dialectical Anthropology 34.3

(2010): 395-417.

Cooper, Lydia R. "“Bone, Flesh, Feather, Fire”: Symbol As Freedom

In Helena Maria Viramontes's Under The Feet Of Jesus."

Critique 51.4 (2010): 366-377.

Foxe, Gladys. "And Nobody Knows What's Going To Happen To

Anybody": Fear And Futility In Jack Kerouac's On The Road

And Why It Is Important." Psychoanalytic Review 95.1 (2008): 45-

60.

Haslam, Jason. "“It Was My Dream That Screwed Up”: The Relativity

Of Transcendence In On The Road." Canadian Review Of American

Studies 39.4 (2009): 443-464.

Himmelwright, Catherine. "Gardens Of Auto Parts: Kingsolver's

Merger Of American Western Myth And Native American Myth In

"The Bean Trees.." Southern Literary Journal 39.2 (2007): 119-139.

Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. New York City, NY: Penguin Books, 1976.

Print.

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Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees. New York City, NY: HarperTorch,

1988. Print

Metz, Walter. "Down Kerouac's Road To Pixar's Up." Film Criticism

35.1 (2010): 60-81.

Mortenson, Erik R. "Beating Time: Configurations Of Temporality

In Jack Kerouac's On The Road." College Literature 28.3 (2001):

51-61.

Napelee, Dan. "On The Road: The Original Scroll; Or, We’Re Not

Queer, We’Re Just Beats." Explicator 69.2 (2011): 72-75.

Skinazi, Karen E.H. "Through Roots And Routes: On The Road’S

Portrayal Of An Outsider's Journey Into The Meaning Of

America." Canadian Review Of American Studies 39.1 (2009): 85-103.

Spangler, Jason. "We're On A Road To Nowhere: Steinbeck, Kerouac,

And The Legacy Of The Great Depression." Studies In The Novel

40.3 (2008): 308-327.

Viramontes, Helena. Under The Feet of Jesus. New York City, NY: Plume,

1995. Print.

.

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