Author: Jack Kerouac
_Jack Kerouac_
Reading time: 14 minutes
Synopsis
On the Road (1957) is a very important book for the Beat generation. It was written by one of their most important thinkers. The story is partly based on the author’s own life and travels. It follows a young writer, Sal Paradise, and his wild new friend, Dean Moriarty. They go on exciting journeys across America in the late 1940s. They travel without a plan. These trips lead them to experiences with sex, drugs, love, and sadness. The book is also full of surprising, poetic language.
What’s in it for me? An exciting travel story about finding a different American dream.
This novel by Jack Kerouac was published in 1957. It was about his own life. It felt like a strong statement for the Beat Generation. This was a well-known group of writers and artists. They did not want to do what everyone else did. Instead, they liked doing things without planning. They loved jazz music and traveled a lot to find meaning.
Kerouac wrote the novel in three weeks, on a long roll of paper. The writing is fast and unplanned. It shows the crazy trips across the country that the book describes. This book made Jack Kerouac famous very quickly. It shocked most people in America. But it excited young readers who wanted something different from a normal, quiet life.
In this summary, you will follow a young writer named Sal Paradise and his mysterious friend, Dean Moriarty. Their story became a guide for future youth movements. It inspired many people, from hippies to punk rockers.
Blink 1 – Going West
It is winter in New York City, 1947. Our storyteller, Sal Paradise, is a young writer. He is just getting over a bad breakup. Then he meets Dean Moriarty for the first time. Dean is a friend of a friend. He just got out of prison. He says he wants to be a writer like Sal. Dean is visiting New York with his new wife, Marylou. He works in a parking lot to earn money.
Sal first visits Dean in the couple’s old apartment in Harlem. He sees a very energetic young man. Dean is full of ideas and desires. They spend a typical New York night with friends. They drink, smoke, listen to jazz music, and talk until early morning.
One night soon after, Dean comes to Sal’s door without telling him. He had a big fight with Marylou. Now he is running from the police. Sal is interested in Dean, so he lets him stay at his aunt’s house. Over time, Sal starts to love Dean’s strong desire for life. This is very different from his smart friends who like to argue. Soon, Dean becomes a very important person for Sal. He is a true man of the road, and also quite wild.
In spring, Dean decides that his first time in New York is over. He wants to go back to his hometown, Denver. Sal decides to save some money and follow his new friend West. So in the summer of 1948, Sal has 50 dollars. He starts on Route 6 to travel across the country. He takes a bus to Chicago. From there, he starts to hitchhike. He eats apple pie and ice cream from cheap restaurants. He says the food gets better the further West he goes.
Sal gets rides from several tired truck drivers. Then he gets “the best ride of his life” with two happy young farmers. They pick up every hitchhiker they see on their way to Los Angeles. The back of the farmer’s truck is full of other travelers. Sal meets a sneaky-looking man called “Montana Slim.” He also meets a kind homeless man he calls “Mississippi Gene,” who has a quiet young friend. The travelers drink, smoke, and joke during the journey. At night, Sal lies on the back of the truck and looks at the stars. He feels truly free and excited. His trip West has begun.
Blink 2 – A working man, a husband and a father
In Denver, Sal stays with another writer friend, Roland Major. But for the first few days, Dean is not around. Finally, Sal gets a call from their friend Carlo Marx. Carlo and Dean are both in Denver. But Dean has been busy with a new girlfriend named Camille. At the same time, he is also with Marylou again. In between, the friends are trying drugs and going to car races.
Finally, Sal, Dean, and Carlo meet up for a night out. Dean even finds a girl for Sal. But they stay out so late that Roland Major will not let Sal back into the house. Their party life continues for a while. Sal often just watches Dean’s huge desire for life and his endless talking.
But there are hints of sadness behind the friends’ wild activities. Sal finally convinces a girl to sleep with him, but she does not seem happy. He feels restless again. He gets more money from his aunt. So he decides to move on to San Francisco.
Just outside San Francisco, Sal moves in with his old friend Remi Boncoeur and Remi’s girlfriend, Lee Ann. He learns about real life when Remi gets him a job. Sal works as a night guard at a place for construction workers. But problems slowly grow between the friends. Money is always a problem. Remi also feels that Sal likes Lee Ann too much. For Sal, California seems more and more empty and sad. One night, he arrives late and drunk to dinner with Remi’s stepfather. Their friendship pretty much ends.
Sal wants to move. He decides to go back East. On the bus to LA, he meets a nice Mexican girl named Terry. They become a couple. But LA is a difficult place. Sal only has twenty dollars left. Neither of them can find any work. So they travel to Terry’s hometown in Sabinal. There, he meets her brother, friends, and her seven-year-old son. The small, temporary family rents a tent near the cotton fields. For a while, Sal likes his new role as a husband, father, and cotton picker. He finds a strange comfort in how Terry and her family accept their hard life. But after some time, the road calls him again. He spends his last money on a bus to Pittsburgh. Terry promises to visit him in New York City, but they both know she will not.
Blink 3 – Menage-a-trois
Sal’s trip back home is hard. From Pittsburgh, he has to hitchhike. He relies on kind strangers to buy him food. He arrives back in New York looking tired and worn out. There, he learns that Dean has moved to San Francisco with his new girlfriend, Camille.
Over the next year, Sal gets back to a normal life. He goes back to school and meets a girl named Lucille. He hopes to marry her. But, as expected, Dean comes back into Sal’s life just when it seems stable. Sal is celebrating Christmas 1948 with family in Virginia. Dean shows up at the door, very excited and unshaven. He has just left Camille and his new baby daughter in San Francisco. Marylou and Ed Dunkel are with him. Ed is a friend who also just left his wife.
Dean seems wilder than ever. Before Sal knows it, Dean has pulled him back onto the road. In New York, they meet old friends and party to Bop music all through New Year’s weekend.
Sal’s girlfriend Lucille immediately dislikes Dean. Sal feels his relationship with Lucille getting worse. He secretly likes Marylou, who has been flirting with him. But Dean suggests that Sal make love to Marylou in front of him. Sal feels too shy to do it. Their old friend Carlo Marx has become more serious. He is worried about how his friends treat their many wives and girlfriends. But that does not stop Dean and Sal from planning another trip out West.
Everyone feels very excited. Sal, Dean, Marylou, Ed Dunkel, and his wife (who came back) start another trip across the country. In Louisiana, they stop at the country house of Bull Lee. He is an older writer who likes to try drugs. They spend a day in the strange life of Bull and his wife Jane. They throw knives and jump on and off freight trains. But even the odd Bull Lee thinks Dean is crazy. He tells Sal to stay away from him.
But Sal feels that he understands Dean better than anyone. It is almost as if they are two parts of the same person. They leave Ed and his wife in New Orleans. The friends and Marylou leave again. They have no money at all. They steal gas and food to survive. For Sal, the mood on the road becomes darker. When they reach San Francisco, Dean immediately leaves them to see Camille. After another party, the three separate. Sal takes the bus back to New York. They all feel a little tired of each other.
Blink 4 – Denver once more
In the spring of 1949, Sal returns to Denver. But all of his friends have left the city. His temporary job at a fruit market does not make him happy. After spending the night with a rich older woman, he quickly gets money to travel again.
Being on the move immediately makes Sal feel more relaxed. The road has become his way of life. So this time, Sal is the one who knocks on Dean’s door in San Francisco in the middle of the night. Dean is back living with Camille. As usual, Dean answers the door without clothes. He tells Sal he has been working as a mechanic. He wants to take care of his wife and baby daughter. But he has also been going crazy thinking about Marylou. She is now married to a used-car salesman. As Dean tells this, Camille is crying upstairs.
In the morning, the couple has a terrible fight. Camille throws both Dean and Sal out of the house. Again, it seems like fate has brought the two men together. But their friendship has changed. Sal’s deep respect for Dean has become real affection. For the first time, Dean needs him, not the other way around.
The two plan to find Dean’s father. Maybe they will go to Italy or Greece. But first, they party for a few nights in San Francisco. After going to jazz clubs, the friends catch a ride heading east.
In Denver, things go badly. Dean is excited to meet a cousin. But the cousin only wants him to sign papers to leave the family. After that, Dean steals a lot of cars. When he realizes one of the cars belongs to a police detective, the two decide to run away.
At a travel office, they meet a man. He wants someone to drive his Cadillac to Chicago. They leave for New York with two boys going to religious school in the back seat. Within a few miles, Dean drives the car into a ditch. A farmer pulls them out. They are both impressed and scared by the farmer’s beautiful daughter. Dean calls her a “prairie angel.” They drive for seventeen hours straight and make it to Chicago.
In Chicago, they drop off the damaged Cadillac. They run before anyone sees how broken it is. After a night watching movies in a poor part of Detroit, they find a ride to New York. They stay with Sal’s aunt. The young men promise to be friends forever.
Blink 5 – The magical South
It is spring again. Sal has finally finished his novel and sold it to a publisher. What better use for the money than to go out West again?
This time, Dean stays in New York. He is back working as a parking lot attendant. He needs to pay child support to Camille, who has had a second baby. He also needs to provide for his new wife Inez and their child in New York. When Dean shows Sal pictures of his wife and kid, they almost look like a normal American family.
The friends seem to be on different paths again. When they say goodbye, both feel lonely and not understood. In Denver, Sal gets some of the old group back together. He feels happy and calm. He has no big dreams anymore. But then Sal hears that Dean has bought a car and is coming to join him. Sal knows what this means: Dean has gone wild again.
When Dean arrives, he shares his plans to go to Mexico. He wants to get his divorce from Camille finished faster there. Sal and their friend Stan will go with him. Their old dream of the West is replaced by the dream of the “magic South.” And once they cross the border into Mexico, the country really seems as magical as they imagined. It is new and mysterious, but also friendly and full of life.
The three meet a man named Victor. He gives them cannabis from his own garden and takes them to a brothel. They drink, smoke, and dance all night. Sal briefly falls in love with a young prostitute. But he is too shy to talk to her more. The next morning, they continue on, passing the Sierra Madre mountains. They spend a dream-like night in the humid jungle. They see a wild horse and get bitten by many bugs.
Finally, they end up in busy Mexico City. It seems much less magical than the rest of the country. Sal gets sick with dysentery and is almost unconscious for a few days. When he wakes up, Dean tells him that he has gotten his divorce. He will drive back to New York right away. It feels like the end of their journey together, at least for now. But Sal cannot be angry. He understands the mixed feelings and ideas at the heart of Dean’s character.
A few weeks later, Sal is back in New York with a new girlfriend, Laura. He plans to move with her to San Francisco. Dean suddenly shows up five weeks early to pick them up. He seems confused and lost. Sal barely has time for him. He is rushing to meet his friend Remi, who openly dislikes Dean. Sal leaves his old friend standing alone on a street corner. Still, Sal cannot stop thinking about the restless, wild Dean Moriarty. He is a true man of the road.
Final summary
This summary of On the Road by Jack Kerouac followed the travels of a young writer, Sal Paradise.
In 1947 New York, Sal becomes very interested in the wild energy of Dean Moriarty, who just got out of prison. Over several years, the friends go on many trips across the country. They are looking for a feeling of freedom that is hard to catch. They hitchhike, steal cars, have relationships with many women, and enjoy jazz music and drugs. Dean’s very strong energy both attracts and tires Sal. Sal struggles between a settled life and the desire to travel. Their friendship is strongest during a magical trip to Mexico. But in the end, it gets weaker as Dean’s wild ways cause problems. At the end of the road, Sal still often thinks about his friend’s restless spirit.
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Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/en/books/on-the-road-en