On the Road is a novel by Jack Kerouac that became a classic of Beat movement writing in the United States. The Beat movement refers to a set of literary, political, and social attitudes mainly associated with certain American writers and artists during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The novel made Kerouac a central literary figure among the Beats. Kerouac completed On the Road in 1951, having typed it out in three weeks from notebooks in which he had made entries during his travels. The final manuscript was taped together as a long scroll. Kerouac could not find a publisher until 1957 and continually revised the manuscript while waiting for its publication.
The novel is a semiautobiographical account of several Beat characters who crisscross the United States and into Mexico by automobile in search of a personal fulfillment that seems easier to hope for than to achieve. Kerouac’s style is intentionally spontaneous and animated, much like the jazz he loved and which is a large part of the book. He tried to capture in his prose the immediacy of his experiences on the road. Kerouac wrote the novel in five parts, narrated by Sal Paradise, who represents the author. The central character is Dean Moriarty, modeled on Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassady. The restless Moriarty is a typical Beat hero with his love of alcohol, jazz, and fast cars; his rejection of conformity and materialism; and his search for mystical religious experience. Another figure in the novel is Carlo Marx, based on Beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
The main action of the novel takes place between 1947 and 1950. The novel is filled with anecdotes about life outside mainstream America. Even though many of those anecdotes are liberating to those involved, some of the things done and some of the actions taken are harmful and selfish.
