In On the Road, Jack Kerouac’s character’s seemed to be motivated to travel for more than just personal pleasure. In Dostoevsky's novel, Notes from the Underground, he says that society puts up walls in order to make people feel safe and comfortable, but those who see past the wall find themselves at odds with the entire idea of society and what it stands for. Through the character’s of Sal, Dean and the beat generation, Dostoevsky’s idea modeled in Notes from the Underground can be found.
1. Show how Sal’s actions have no mathematical explanation, they come through his use of free will because it is the biggest advantage humans have over animals.
2. Show how Sal’s discontent with society is him destructing the walls put in place by generations of people before him.
3. Show how Sal’s relationship with Dean is important, because it validates Sal’s existence and draws him to Dean.
4. In Dostoevsky’s writing, he mentions how the journey is more important than the actual end or goal, because we like the idea of getting somewhere. I want to explain how this book is basically stating that argument in one huge narrative.
Phil, I like your points of discussion. We’re both relating NFTU to On the Road, but it seems like we’re going to focus on different arguments. I particularly like your second point, that Sal’s discontent with society manifests in him destructing previous walls; I think it pretty much exemplifies the Beat Generation and how people then just wanted to formulate an opposite life and find their own way rather than plain following what happened before. It would flow well from the first argument so those two should definitely be linked. Point three is also pretty interesting in explaining Sal’s validation from with Dean –this gets even more complicated as the book progresses. For example, by the end, Sal even makes Dean cry –just some evidence that his influence on Dean grows.
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