On the Road | Characters

The central characters in On the Road are Dean Moriarty, a would-be author and part-time railroad man, and the first-person narrator, Sal Paradise, a young writer. Dean is Sal's alter-ego, the dark angel of Sal's existence who lives out what Sal wants to capture in his writing — the immediate absorption of all experience. The identities of Sal and Dean are closely related throughout the book.

Dean is a radical innocent, naturally in opposition to conventional standards of morality. Raised without a mother, by a hobo father, he is a protean figure, embodying the energy and...

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