Juan's Reaction to chapters 9-10

            In this section of “On the Road,” I became a bit confused with what was going on. Kerouac has a unique style of writing where he just states things as they happen, but they he does not discriminate against what he is speaking about, thus it evokes a monotone feeling in the story. Because I was not used to this style of writing I had some trouble at times following what was going on. To top that, the story not only has a monotone feel to it, but Kerouac also switches topics randomly. One paragraph Sal will be reflecting on his situation in Denver and what he will do next and the next paragraph he will return to reality and randomly have an incomplete conversation with one of his friends. The fact that so many characters have been introduced is something that bothers me as well. Without enough background for any of the characters, it is difficult to keep track of who is who and who is doing what, adding to the difficulty of understanding what is happening overall.

            What I got from these two chapters was a change in Sal’s behavior. I noticed that he was no longer entirely obsessed with whatever Dean was doing. Instead, it seemed that Sal was simply going with the flow by hanging out with his other friends. For example, Sal went to Central City and had a night out thinking about Dean and Carlo only once, and that thought was that they would not like the Central City scene. At the end of chapter ten, Sal reflects on the fact that he barely saw Dean through his whole time spent in Denver. I hope that this will affect Sal in a positive manner and that he won’t follow Dean around as much as he did before. I am expecting Sal to recognize that he can in fact have fun with out Dean, and it bothers me that he felt so dependent of Dean in the first place. Also, I find it ironic how Sal specifically went to Denver to seek out Dean and his adventures and then ended up hardly spending time with Dean.

            In conclusion, I hope that Kerouac will change his style at least for the climax of the story. I find it quite perplexing truthfully that you can write a story in a monotone fashion. I don’t think I could ever do this, and it makes me ponder if perhaps this is why this book is revered so much.