Sal heads out to the Rockies in this segment of On the Road, and I was surprised that he
decided to go. His attendance meant that
he would not see Carlo, and more importantly, Dean, for the next five
days. I think he might be coming to the
realization that they have no time for him; besides, Dean and Carlo spend their
time philosophizing about life whereas Sal wants to go out and have a good
time. Sal has a great line that I really
enjoyed where he says that Dean and Carlo are “the sordid hipsters of America”,
which I can definitely see. Dean and
Carlo and the rest of them are, in essence, the original hipsters. Just like this generation was fascinated with
the emergence of hipsters, I think this was what was so intriguing about this
book when it came out. The book
represents a change in the young adults of America and a defiance of the social
norms that would have resonated with the youth of the nation, what is now known
as the beat generation.
This segment further reinforced the idea that Sal speaks mostly
objectively, and I think this is important to really get the feel of the beat
generation across. Just like Nick’s
character in The Great Gatsby, Sal
has few opinions and merely cites what he sees and what is going on around him. Objectivity would only smudge the pure
picture being painted of the new youth of America, the youth rejecting the received
standards and submitting more to their own will.
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