On_the_Road

In the first part to On the Road it seems that is best described as a window that looks at the interactions between three characters. The novel is showing you the importance of having people around you as inspiration and motivation when it comes to writing literature. Although the novel begins by introducing Sal right away the reader can’t help but wonder if Dean Moriarty is the most important piece to the work. Sal is indeed depressed and unmotivated but it is Dean that shows up and gets the ball rolling for the both of them. Dean is just the motivation that Sal needed to appear in his life if he was to do anything that he found worthwhile. When the two decided to go to New York with Carl Marx they really begin thinking about the possibilities that could be in terms of their writing. The three are now feeding each other with ideas and new perspectives on various things found in everyday life. It took Dean moving back to Denver to really set things into motion when it came to Sal. In Dean’s absence Sal was compelled to begin his first novel but couldn’t finish it without him. Sal took off for Denver with very little money and no realistic plan for reaching his destination. This is one point in the novel where their friendship is the cause of a large adventure that this novel is so famous for. The description of everything that Sal encounters in the novel is flawless. “And here for the first time in my life I saw my beloved Mississippi River dry in the summer haze, low water, with is big rank smell that smells like the raw body of America itself because it washes it up” (Pg. 13). Descriptions like this one are what makes the novel so outstanding, it’s the raw details that really paint a vivid picture for the and it is a chance to see Sal left to his own thoughts and feelings while Dean and Carlo were not with him.