On the Road《Review on On the Road》

这个学期开始的鉴赏课作业

总共要对Kerouac的书进行4次鉴赏以下是从他的不循规蹈矩的写作方法以及他与Neal的友谊写的.

Consider Kerouac: Book as Vision

There has not been a consensus over whether On the Road is a masterpiece or an adolescent work after Viking published it in 1957. However both sides of commentators must have seen the freedom and authenticity inherent in the soul of On the Road.

Firstly we can smell the freedom and authenticity in Kerouac’s ignorance of establishment throughout the book. As an educated Columbia student though dropped out of school in the middle he knew well about all the writing rules—structure grammar language usage and so forth. Nevertheless he intentionally wrote On the Road on a 50-page scroll without paragraphs and with tones of grammatical errors. His carelessness of structuring the novel can be seen everywhere in the book even at the first sentence of the story— two “met” s.

Kerouac’s imposition of no restriction on his work offended some of the famous commentators including Podhoretz who was Ginsberg's contemporary at Columbia. He considered Kerouac irresponsible to his “creative child” and the creative child was exactly the work of On the Road. In Podhoretz’s opinion it was the abuse of personal lifestyle the ignorance of grammar and the unconstraint of writing language usage that undermine the “creative child” which led the book to failure and immorality. Inversely from my point of view it is the whole mistakes Kerouac intentionally made that mark the book as a masterpiece. In 1950’s the majority of Americans lived lives with routines and rules. Husbands went to work in the morning and came back home in the afternoon while wives took care of children did housework and cooked a “satisfactory” dinner to wait for husbands back. The same picture showed up every day and never stopped but Kerouac realized the lack of spirituality throughout the continent. Therefore he expressed the rebellion to routines and rules in his daily life and later in his 50-page scroll On the Road. It is easy to form a vivid image in mind of a man who desired for freedom in the book thanks to the indulgent of his writing. It was a sad man because he lived in such a stupid time which was full of disappointment when he travelled from east to west and it was a brave man because he challenged himself to live with no disciplines.

The taste of freedom and authenticity has been on the tongue because of Kerouac’s “creative child”.

Furthermore Kerouac’s friendship with Neal is also a manifesto of the theme. If Kerouac was considered brave Neal would be the model or the origin of Kerouac’s courage. In most people’s mind Neal was a restless guy who came from a reform school due to his stealing cars played around with girls for satisfying his desire for sex had marijuana and then went mad constantly while in Kerouac’s eyes Neal was a hero. Neal was a hero who knew what kind of life he would like to live who was knowledgeable about the essence of life and who was able to control his own life. In Kerouac’s mind Neal was the very person who loved life. Not like others Neal was active to life. I am more fascinated with the friendship between Neal and Kerouac. Neal could share his lover with Kerouac although ridiculous to some extent it was a strong indication that they were such close to each other and there was nothing they could not share. It seemed to be a miraculous coincidence for an educated writer and a hoodlum to be friends but it actually was not because they both loved life. Kerouac was seeking life was eager for freedom and authenticity while Neal exactly lived a life which Kerouac is seeking which led to the close friendship of them.

In a nutshell the ignorance of establishment and the deep friendship between Kerouac and Neal give the sparkles in the expression of the essence of the novel—freedom and authenticity. It is also the reason why On the Road is a success after its release until now especially among college students. Over the half century the exploration to freedom and authenticity has never been stopped and people will be always “On the Road.”