On the road

DIAPOSITIVA N°9

Symbolism
CADILLAC: The Cadillac is an American car, and a big beautiful Cadillac is all tied up with the Big
Beautiful American Dream. So the thing is that at one point in the story the protagonists get the
chance to hire a 47’ Cadillac limousine. But Dean’s mad, fast driving, his need to move, and his
dangerous lifestyle ruins the car. It symbolizes The Beat Generation is running around rebelling
against the American Dream, and destroying in it their trips across country.
https://www.shmoop.com/on-the-road/cadillac-symbol.html
THE ROAD: The open road symbolizes freedom for Dean and Sal. They long to be on the move, feel
happiest on the road, and meet new friends as they travel. They travel not only on physical, literal
roads, but also on journeys of maturation and learning.  The road itself is the goal for them, and the
journey is more important than where they end up. As Sal says at one point, emphasizing the
importance of the road and all that it represents, “the road is life.”
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/on-the-road/symbols/the-road

DIAPOSITIVA N°10
TIME (underestimate the importance of time): Dean measures the aspects of his journeys in terms of
time. In contrast, Sal measures things in terms of distance. That is, until Sal finds himself standing in
the very literal Times Square in New York where he realizes time is running out and death is the
inevitable end of the life journey. As Sal thinks in terms of places, he needs a physical location to
represent time, like Times Square.
https://www.shmoop.com/on-the-road/cadillac-symbol.html
https://www.coursehero.com/lit/On-the-Road/symbols/
VISIONS AND ALLUSINATIONS: Throughout the novel, many characters experience strange visions
and hallucinations. These visions highlight the altered reality members of the Beat Generation sought
to inhabit by experimenting with drugs, alcohol, sex, and travel. For example, Sal frequently dreams
about the “shrouded traveler”.
https://www.coursehero.com/lit/On-the-Road/symbols/
“The Shrouded traveler”:  At one point, Sal thinks that the traveler is probably death, suggesting that
the inevitability of death is what drives Sal to get as much out of his life as possible by hitting the road
and feeling madly alive. But, Sal also says that Dean reminds him of this mysterious figure. This may
suggest that it is only Dean’s influence on Sal that propels him to stay on the move.  The identity of
the shrouded traveler is never stated definitively. Thus, he does not simply represent any one person.
Rather, this strange figure stands in more generally for the unknown cause of the restlessness that
afflicts Sal, Dean, all their friends, and even the whole Beat generation.
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/on-the-road/symbols/the-shrouded-traveler

DIAPOSITIVA N°11
(Theme) EAST VS. WEST: Before the arrival of Dean, Sal feels depressed tired and stagnant, but
when Dean, the personification of Sal's dream of the West arrives he sparks everything into motion.
Here we can see the contrast of ideas about the East: intellectual, stagnant, old, saddened, and
critical vs. the ideas of the West: passionate, young, exuberant and wild.
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ontheroad/section1/
(theme) FRIENDSHIP: Sal and Dean are an unlikely pair of best friends. Travelling all round, Sal
meets a lot of people. However, Dean is the one who can be really called friend to him. The who of
the never split apart, unlike the women they met and they leave over and over again, they stay
together until the endo of the book, where their farewell is tragically described.

https://prezi.com/1tr_by8o0rz_/on-the-road-jack-kerouac/

DIAPOSITIVA N°12

Characters
Sal Paradise - The narrator and protagonist of the story, a young 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. Salvatore
Paradise's name has a special meaning. Sal spends much time in the novel seeking paradise, but it
is never clear what paradise truly means to Sal.

DIAPOSITIVA N°13

Dean Moriarty - Sal’s friend, traveling companion, and inspiration. Dean represents the center of the
Beat movement to Sal. He is a young man who has lived a full life for his few years: He has been
through numerous jobs, women, prisons, and travels, and his adventures continue after he begins the
cross-country trips with Sal. He is like a burning comet, seeking the ultimate experiences of life—
through drugs, sex, music (jazz), or whatever else is at hand. His frantic, almost boundless energy
sparks anyone close to him and gives a certain electric momentum to the novel’s prose. Dean is an
original in American fiction, although it would be difficult to live with him (as various women in the
novel discover).

DIAPOSITIVA N°14

Marylou

Marylou, women in Dean’s life. She understands Dean and their relationship well. Marylou sees
Dean's madness, saying that she loves him dearly yet can't have him because he is too wild for her.

“Marylou was a pretty blonde with immense ringlets of hair like a sea of golden tresses; she sat there
on the edge of the couch with her hands hanging in her lap and her smoky blue country eyes... But,
outside of being a sweet little girl, she was awfully dumb and capable of doing horrible things.”

DIAPOSITIVA N°15
Carlo Marx
Carlo Marx, a friend of Sal and Dean, a poet (based on Beat poet Allen Ginsberg) who holds
marathon discussion sessions with Dean and shares with him the frenetic search for life’s meaning.
Carlo is also the voice of reason in the group and asks for explanations and reasons for Dean and
Sal's crazy actions, although they are never able to provide reasons. 
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ontheroad/characters/
https://ontheroadstudynotes.weebly.com/character-analysis.html