Sharon's 3rd 500

The idea that Sal has begun to make more self-harming decisions feeds directly into Dostoyevsky’s analysis of impulsive versus cautious human behavior. These actions do not arise for no reason; in fact, those who normally fight for what they believe in only do so because they are too ignorant to see the whole idea and weigh all the options. Dostoyevsky compounds this conclusion by contributing his own inability to act to being too smart. His own knowledge and constant thinking render him, and other intellectually superior humans, too perceptive to just pick one side of the argument and act ‘blindly’ as the impulsive people do. Sal, in the beginning of the novel, is the embodiment this latter attitude; he never ventures to the craziness of a life on the road, partially because of his obligations at home, but also partially because he was too indecisive, “always vaguely planning and never taking off” (1). He had worried too much and never got anything done, a sign of his intelligence.

“On the Road”, however, marks the transition from Sal’s cautious, conservative lifestyle to one of gambles and risks. Upon the divorce, he decides to finally throw away any inhibitions and set out. Although difficult at first, as evidenced by Sal’s misery during the first few days after realizing his preconceived notions were incorrect, Sal later adjusts to his new lifestyle by using Dean as a guide to living life on the edge. The subsequent more decisive, albeit wild, behavior that results is, as Dostoyevsky analyzed, representative of Sal’s freer nature in which he is no longer overwhelmed by constant overthinking, choosing instead to make decisions in the spur of the moment without thinking of the consequences. While Sal chooses this lifestyle, however, Dean embraces this decisive, impulsive nature because it is the only one that has ever made sense to him. In accordance with Dostoyevsky’s observations, Dean has never considered any other life because he is simply unable to picture himself without being on the road. Just as the generation before the Beat had only accepted a sensible and structured society, Dean can only appreciate wild risks; he is too set in his ways and stubborn to accept anything else.

For this reason, Dean also embodies Dostoyevsky’s idea of walls; like much of the Beat generation, Dean tries to go against the structured society of the time, breaking down the wall of conformity. In doing so, however, he is setting up a different one –the belief that only being on the road will give him the happiness he wants. Even suffering from withdrawal-like symptoms and depression whenever he has somewhat settled down with his family for a short time, Dean feeds off of being on the road to such an extent that he cannot function well outside of it, associating things like sex, drugs, alcohol and partying as strictly on-the-road experiences. He has rejected the typical work- and family-oriented lifestyle so much to the extent that he feels restricted in even the remotest settings of it.