A Memorable Journey Jack Kerouac's exuberant novel, On the Road, follows a group of restless young friends who travel across America in second-hand cars as they find the their 'excitement' in jazz, girls, drugs and intense conversations about love, poetry and serenity. Highlighting the underground beat lifestyle of the 1950s, Kerouac celebrates the challenge of a generation chasing the freedom promised by the American dream while dedicating itself to instinct and emotion. Sal Paradise, a struggling writer living on veterans' benefits and a generous aunt, narrates the novel with awestruck wonder at his gleaned experiences of travel along the way. Frustrated and stagnant with his negative, studious, pretentious friends on campus, Sal longs for new visions, richer experiences, and a release from the urges building up in his soul. The unpredictable and dizzying tornado of energy called Dean Moriarty embodies Sal's attitude towards the spiritual potential that life contains and Sal "chases" him, hoping to reach that potential. Sal's hero is considered a long-lost brother and in Dean's "excited way of speaking I [Sal] heard again the voices of old comrades and brothers under the bridge..." Born in Denver, Sal's mother Dean died young and his father became a drunken drifter, leaving Dean in a childhood complete with reform school and harmless criminal offenses. Sal explains that Dean's criminality "wasn't something to sulk and sneer at; it was a wild explosion of American joy; it was Western, the west wind, an ode from the plains...." Passionate contempt Dean's social responsibility and the chaos it invites into his life, like juggling two wives and stealing cars, results in a mad rush to the other side... to the center of the card... because it's the same in every corner. ....We give and take and go into the incredibly complicated sweetness that zigzags every which way,” one knows that Dean is sincerely trying to communicate from his heart and not painfully calculating his thoughts. Kerouac seems to write by letting one word trigger a idea for the next word until the result reveals a great phrase like: "the only people for me [Sal] are the crazy ones, the ones who are crazy to live, crazy to talk, crazy to be saved, wanting everything at the same time " time, the ones who never yawn or say trivial things, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders through the stars and in the middle you see the central blue light burst and everyone goes "AWWW!" The pure enthusiasm and the intense emotions that Kerouac spontaneously evokes make "On the Road" an unforgettable journey and novel.