On the Road (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Jack Kerouac
- First Published: 1957
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Autobiographical
- Time of Work: The late 1940’s
- Setting: The United States
- Genres: Long fiction, Autobiographical fiction, Picaresque fiction
- Subjects: Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Traveling or travelers, Love or romance, 1940’s, Roads, streets, or highways, Drugs, Adventure
- Locales: United States, Mexico
Characters Discussed
Sal Paradise, the narrator, a young and aspiring writer. Sal is the prototypical innocent, the romantic naïf who learns about life through his associations with Dean Moriarty and other friends. After Sal meets Dean in the winter of 1947, they begin a series of cross-country journeys, by bus and by car, that make up whatever plot the novel can be said to have. Sal is searching for life, and he admires Dean Moriarty, the man who has found “it,” some special spiritual connection to life. Sal briefly rests in Dean’s energetic, almost frantic glow.
...[The entire page is 665 words long]
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