On the Road with Huck Finn
Both Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tell stories of the search for freedom and adventure while travelling. The main characters of both books long for the experience of travelling the American countryside. Although the circumstances that lead Sal Paradise and Huck Finn on their journeys are different, they have similar ideas of what awaits them on the unknown road ahead. However, as Sal and Huck both learn, dreams do not always correspond with reality. This lesson is learned throughout their time spent trying to reach and realize their dreams. Along their journeys to reach their respective dreams, both characters spend time with minorities. Sal spends time living among Mexican laborers and explores the African American jazz scene, and Huck spends time with Jim, a runaway slave. The two hold very different views of Mexican and African American life and both grow from their experiences in different ways. Sal Paradise’s and Huck Finn’s dreams about the excitement of travelling America and their differing ideas of minority life are eventually confronted by the realities of travelling and the lives of minorities.
On the Road focuses primarily on the exciting part of Sal’s life – his life on the road. Sal’s life at home in New York is portrayed as much less interesting than his time spent travelling across the country. Critics speculate that Kerouac and the beat generation believed that “living at home, being cared for by one 's aunt, working on a novel, even achieving commercial success is not exciting…” (French par 15). Sal’s New York life is barely mentioned and only shows his boredom and longing to escape. In the beginning of the novel, Sal states that prior to meeting Dean he lived with the feeling “that everything was dead” (Kerouac 1). Sal had dreamed of going west to see America but none of his plans came to fruition – until Dean. Dean is described as “a youth tremendously excited with life…he wanted so much to live
On the Road focuses primarily on the exciting part of Sal’s life – his life on the road. Sal’s life at home in New York is portrayed as much less interesting than his time spent travelling across the country. Critics speculate that Kerouac and the beat generation believed that “living at home, being cared for by one 's aunt, working on a novel, even achieving commercial success is not exciting…” (French par 15). Sal’s New York life is barely mentioned and only shows his boredom and longing to escape. In the beginning of the novel, Sal states that prior to meeting Dean he lived with the feeling “that everything was dead” (Kerouac 1). Sal had dreamed of going west to see America but none of his plans came to fruition – until Dean. Dean is described as “a youth tremendously excited with life…he wanted so much to live
Cited: French, Warren. Jack Kerouac. In Twayne 's United States Authors Series Online. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1999. Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. New York: Penguin Books, 2003. Malcolm, Douglas and Harold Bloom. "Jazz America": Jazz and African American Culture in Jack Kerouac 's "On the Road." Bloom 's Modern Critical Interpretations: On the Road (93-114):2004. Richardson, Mark and Harold Bloom. “Peasant Dreams: Reading On the Road.” Bloom 's Modern Critical Interpretations: On the Road (207-231):2004. Trachtenberg, Alan and Harold Bloom. “The Form of Freedom in Huckleberry Finn.” Bloom’s Major Literary Characters: Huck Finn (48-63): 1990. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.