March 2024 Directors Meeting, Division of Student Affairs and Academic Support
Ontheroad Annammolla
2. 1. Summary of one chapter
I summarize the chapter number 7 called “Love in LA”.
In this chapter Sal paradise, the principal character of the novel, is going to
LA. When he was on the bus he found the prettiest little Mexican girl that he
has ever seen. During the travel they talk a lot and then they fallen in love.
Terry, the name of this Mexican girl, was escaping, from his husband because
he beat her. When they arrived to Los Angeles they stayed fifteen days in a
hotel, but they didn’t like so much this lonely place. So then tried to hitch-
hike to New York, but finally they went by bus. Here they didn’t find a job
and Terry proposed to went to Sabinal, her own town, where they can live in
her brother’s garage. In Sabinal they found a job in cotton, but Sal, Terry and
her son have to live in a tent, because they hadn’t enough money. At the end
Sal didn’t like this bad way to live and came back to NY.
Chapters:
Chapter 1 How I All Began
Chapter 2 Halfway across America
Chapter 3 The Greatest Ride of My Life
Chapter 4 The Rocky Mountains
Chapter 5 Out on the Street
Chapter 6 The Cost of Living
Chapter 7 Love in LA
Chapter 8 Dean’s Story
Chapter 9 On the Road Again
Chapter 10 Driving South
Chapter 11 Journey to San Francisco
Chapter 12 Goodbyes
Chapter 13 Back in San Francisco
Chapter 14 The Road Is Life
Chapter 15 Driving East
Chapter 16 Together Again in Denver
Chapter 17 Across the Rio Grande
Chapter 18 Mexico City
Chapter 19 The Last Goodbye
3. 2. Biography
Jack Kerouac was born in March of 1922 and he died in October of 1969. He
was a popular American novelist and poet. He is considered one of the
representatives of the “Beat Generation”, he is a big reference in this period
of time.
Kerouac had a spontaneous style and his novels talk about jazz, promiscuity,
Buddhism, drugs, poverty and an important thing, travel, like “On the road”.
His writings have inspired several writers, including Hunter S. Thompson, Tom
Robbins, Lester Bangs, Will Clarke, Richard Brautigan, Ken Kesey, Haruki
Murakami, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, and writers of the New Journalism.
At 1940s and 1950s his way of think and live was so immoral and later he was
considered the progenitor of the Hippie movement.
Kerouac lost his battle to alcoholism and died at the age of 47.
Since his death, and thanks in large part to the efforts of editor Ann Charters,
nowadays we can find his literature with titles like On the Road, The Dharma
Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Visions of
Cody and Big Sur, some of them was in a film.
4. 3. My Opinion
In this history there are two important things to mention, the first is the new
highways built by the US government at 1940s, when happened this tale. The
second was the consequence of the first thing, because people want to see
whole United States, and this people share gas and hitch-hiking to arrive to
their destinies
This two premises move the history all around the US, because the title is “On
the road”. The principal characters remained the most of time of the novel
at the road, drinking, chatting, sleeping, shouting, stealing and a lot of other
things, maybe forbidden things.
In my opinion this novel is so interesting to reflect one epoch, exactly between
1940s and 1950s, an epoch for certain people who live in a especial way. This
people is called “Beat generation”, and I think it’s important this novel,
because in this tale we can know about this way of life and the consequences
that it has. It’s interesting too the way
of write of Kerouac, because is not the
usually way.
In the other hand we have the characters,
that all of them correspond to a real
person, for example Sal Paradise is Jack
Kerouac, Dean Moriarty is Neal Cassady,
a hero to the beats, Carlo Marx is the
poet Allen Ginsberg and the Kerouac’s
aunt is actually his own mother. This
relation with the reality it’s important to
represents this way of life of “beat
generation”.
For my I think is a good novel, I was so
entertained with it and it encourages my
to find out information and more novels
or films about this epoch, I found some
things yet, like “The Subterraneans”
(1960), “Heart beat” (1980), “Kerouac,
the movie” (1985), “Beat” (2000), “Visions
of Cody” (2004) or one it’s in progress
5. “On the road” (2009). And this reading achieved that I want to read the whole
version of this novel and see this films that I mention above.
I found so interesting the “beat generation” I think was period of time so
crazy like the character of Dean Moriarty, they was guide by their passions
and their sentiments, sometimes this could cause some problems to the
principal characters.
In whole novel we can find all the time a lot of alcohol, marijuana, jazz and
sex. This are the things that the characters like, in addition of the road.
This book achieve that you appreciate the places that they visited, because
the tale makes the reader want to go to this places, to a party in apartment
en New York, to the barracks of San Francisco, to Denver or maybe Mexico,
because the author describes it, like the paradise.
In addition this book transmits the ideology of “Beat Generation”, that I think
is based in a important thing LIVE THE LIFE. And I think it’s important because
4. Blurbs
1-The way of life of the Beat Generation was exactly reflected in this book.
The road was the connection and the pleasure is the destiny. Live your life!
2-This was the most impure book of the world! We can find sex, drugs and
jazz! I like this way of life!
3-My opinion is that we have to hide this book in the darkest cave in the world,
it could pervert the innocents children of the world with this tales about sex
with a lot of people, drugs, alcohol and ride so quickly in a car.