Characters
Sal Paradise
Sal Paradise, the narrator, is a young and aspiring writer. As the prototypical innocent and romantic naïf, Sal learns about life through his associations with Dean Moriarty and other friends. After meeting Dean in the winter of 1947, Sal embarks on several cross-country journeys, by bus and car, forming the core of the novel's narrative. Sal's quest is one for life itself, and he idolizes Dean Moriarty, who appears to have discovered a special spiritual connection to life. Sal briefly basks in Dean's energetic, almost frantic glow. Sal also lives with his aunt in Paterson, New Jersey, at the beginning of the novel. She provides him with a nurturing home to return to after his road trips and even bails Dean out when he is caught speeding. Sal's adventures entail encounters with a variety of characters, including his friend Chad King in New York and Hal Hingham in Tucson, who lends him money. Ultimately, Sal falls in love with a woman named Laura in New York, and they plan to move to San Francisco together.
Dean Moriarty
Dean Moriarty is a drifter and Sal's friend, traveling companion, and inspiration. To Sal, Dean embodies the center of the Beat movement. As a young man who has lived a life full of diverse experiences, Dean navigates through numerous jobs, relationships, prisons, and travels. His adventures continue unabated even as he begins his cross-country trips with Sal. Dean is akin to a burning comet, relentlessly seeking life's ultimate experiences through drugs, sex, jazz music, or any other available means. Based on the real-life Neal Cassady, Dean seems destined to burn out. As part of the great American tradition of the hustler, he eventually deceives and disappoints Sal by abandoning him when Sal falls ill in Mexico. Nevertheless, Dean remains Sal's brotherly figure, a lost father, and the cool, mad saint in pursuit of joy and spirituality. His boundless energy electrifies those around him, infusing the novel's prose with dynamic momentum. Despite his magnetic allure, his behavior often borders on the selfish and reckless, as exemplified by his numerous marriages and abandonments. Dean's life eventually spirals into incoherence, leaving him a pitiable figure by the novel's conclusion.
Carlo Marx
Carlo Marx is a poet and a friend to both Sal and Dean. Based on the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Carlo engages in extensive discussions with Dean, joining him in the frenetic quest for life's meaning. Sal introduces Carlo to Dean, and they become close friends. Carlo’s presence is marked by an amusing scene where he and Dean analyze everything in a Benzedrine-driven marathon. Carlo later visits Old Bull Lee in Texas and poses the memorable question, "I mean, man, whither goest thou? Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?" a question that neither Dean nor Sal can answer.
Teresa (Terry)
Terry is a young Mexican woman whom Sal meets on a bus to Los Angeles. Their brief romance is marked by plans to move to New York together, but job opportunities in Los Angeles fall through. They relocate to Sabinal, California, Terry's hometown, to retrieve her son and work as migrant laborers. Sal's frustration over his inability to support Terry and her son through fieldwork leads him to return home. Although Terry promises to meet him in New York, Sal realizes they will never reunite.
Remi Boncoeur
Remi Boncoeur is Sal's friend in San Francisco. Initially, Sal plans to ship out on a luxury liner with Remi but instead takes a job guarding construction barracks with him. Remi's nagging girlfriend, Lee Ann, complicates their relationship, which deteriorates further...
(This entire section contains 1255 words.)
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when Remi fails to sell Sal's screenplay. Ultimately, Sal and Remi's friendship falters during a disastrous dinner meant to impress Remi's stepfather. Concluding his visit, Remi joins Sal and Laura in New York City at the novel's end, where they encounter Dean for the last time.
Bull Lee
Bull Lee is a mutual friend with whom Sal, Dean, and others stay in Louisiana. As a kind of guru figure, Bull Lee is a heavy drug user, based on novelist William Burroughs. He offers guidance to the group and shares his odd theories and beliefs. Despite his drug addiction, he serves as an insightful mentor to Sal, Dean, and Carlo Marx. Bull suspects that Dean may be descending into madness and invites Sal to remain in New Orleans instead of continuing his travels. Nevertheless, Sal departs with Dean and Marylou when his GI check arrives.
Camille Moriarty
Camille is Dean's second wife, whom he meets in Denver. Dean divorces Marylou to marry Camille, and they eventually settle in San Francisco with their children. However, Dean often abandons her to go on the road. At one point, she ejects Dean from their home shortly after Sal's arrival. Dean divorces Camille to marry Inez, though he eventually returns to her.
Inez Moriarty
Inez is Dean's third wife, whom he meets in New York City. Pregnant with Dean's child, she marries him after Dean divorces Camille in Mexico. However, Dean soon leaves Inez to return to Camille in San Francisco.
Marylou Moriarty
Marylou is Dean's flirtatious first wife. After meeting her post-reformatory, Dean divorces her to marry Camille, yet they maintain a complicated relationship. She travels with Dean and Sal before having an affair with Sal after Dean abandons them in San Francisco. Eventually, Marylou marries a used-car dealer, and the last time Dean sees her, he unsuccessfully asks her to kill him.
Ed Dunkel
Ed Dunkel is a friend of Dean's who travels with him and Sal during their cross-country journeys. Initially working with Dean on the railroad in San Francisco, Ed marries Galatea to finance their trip to see Sal. They abandon her in Tucson after she exhausts her funds. After reconnecting with Galatea in New Orleans, Ed plans to take sociology classes, marking the last time Sal encounters him.
Galatea Dunkel
Galatea, Ed Dunkel's wife, finances the journey Ed and Dean undertake. Abandoned in Tucson, she relocates to New Orleans, staying with Old Bull Lee until Ed retrieves her. They later live in San Francisco and ultimately settle in Denver. Galatea offers Sal a poignant prediction that Dean will one day embark on a road trip and never return.
Frankie
Frankie is a coal-truck driver and single mother whose home serves as a brief stop for Sal and Dean in Denver. With four children, Frankie enjoys drinking and refuses Dean's request to buy a car, arousing his anger. Dean creates chaos by attempting to seduce her neighbor's daughter, leading Sal and Dean to flee after Dean steals a detective's car.
Chad King
Sal's acquaintance Chad King, described as a "Nietzschean anthropologist," is introduced through letters sent by Dean from a reformatory in New Mexico. Chad becomes Sal's first contact upon his arrival in Denver.
Laura
Laura becomes Sal's romantic interest in the novel's epilogue. After meeting her outside her apartment, they fall in love over hot chocolate. Planning to relocate to San Francisco to be near Dean and Camille, their plans are disrupted when Dean arrives prematurely. Sal and Laura's date with Remi Boncoeur coincides with their final encounter with Dean, who cuts a pathetic figure at this juncture.
Jane Lee
Jane Lee is the Benzedrine-addicted wife of Old Bull Lee. Despite health issues caused by drugs and polio, she remains closely bonded with Bull. Their relationship is characterized by a unique humor and understanding of each other's subtle communications. Sal observes Jane's unwavering attention to Bull, never straying more than ten feet from him.
