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Jack Kerouac:

A comparison of his writings “Almost on the Road” and “On the Road”


How can anyone know the best way to live? What is right or wrong?
Who tells us this and why? Jack Kerouac touches on this from time to time in his writings, "Almost on the Road", and "On the Road". He allows us to see how someone can live life with nothing and still feel fulfilled and even feel hatred to those who do work for monetary value and material possessions. So which one is right? Should people work for a living? Should they do an honest day’s work, come home tired and hungry, only to do it all over again the next day? Or is it better to do only what is needed; make all of their own clothes, housing, and furniture, grow their own food, and live without responsibilities to another human life for as long as they live? Kerouac illustrates the difference between a life with value and a life without value in his writings “On the Road” and “Almost on the Road.”
Kerouac was a person who desired a simple life. “My life is going to be a farm where I’ll grow my food. I won’t do nothing but sit under a tree while my crops are growing, drink homemade wine, write novels to edify my soul, play with my kids, and thumb my nose at the coughing wretches” ( Kerouac Almost on the Road ). This is made true with his story, “On the Road”. Sal Paradise, the main character, leaves everything to hitchhike “…his way from New York to Colorado with fifty dollars in his pocket. The plan is to meet up with his friends, jump in a car, and drive west to the Pacific Ocean and whatever else they happen to find along the way” ( Kerouac On the Road ). Sal is who Kerouac wants to be; a free person who can roam the countryside and do as he pleases. Even though Sal has a goal of meeting up with friends, he befriends whoever he can along his journey. One of these people is Eddie, a drifter like Sal. In real life, Kerouac has a friend, Allen Ginsberg, who like himself is a writer. It seems as if Sal and Eddie are, in some ways, the literary manifestations of Ginsberg and Kerouac. He writes as if trying to show that he and Allen are the two men hitchhiking their way to a new life and new love. You can see the similarities between Ginsberg and Eddie when at four ‘o’clock in the morning Ginsberg told Kerouac “…he will communicate with other human beings as no one ever has-completely, sweetly, naturally” (Kerouac Almost on the Road). Eddie has a similar need to share his dreams when he drank with Sal, “…and yelled joyously in my ear all the sordid dreams of his life. I kind of liked him; not because he was a good sort, as he later proved to be, but because he was enthusiastic about things” (Kerouac on the Road). Sal and Kerouac have similar lifestyles. One of which is their eating habits. Kerouac says, “I’ve been getting fat and lazy.” (Kerouac Almost on the Road) Before writing, “On the Road” he plans to “join the morning club at the Y and work out almost every weekday” (Kerouac Almost on the Road). This leads me to believe that Kerouac probably indulged in unhealthy food. Similarly, Sal has a bit of a sweet tooth. He recalls, “I ate apple pie and ice cream – it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer” (Kerouac on the Road).
Although Kerouac narrates parts of himself and that of his friend Ginsberg into the lives of his fictional traveling companions there are many noticeable differences. While Kerouac searched for a life changing discovery he is realistic enough to understand that the society he lives in might possibly hinder that realization. He says that in America, “…they slave for Expenses. People rush off to meaningless jobs day after day, you see them coughing in the subways at dawn. The squander their souls on things like ‘rent’, ‘decent clothes’, ‘gas and electricity’, ‘insurance’, behaving like peasants that have just come out of the fields and are so dreadful tickled because they can buy baubles and doodads in stores” ( Kerouac Almost on the Road ). However, Kerouac portrays Sal and Eddie as “…two guys hitchhiking to California in search of something they don’t really find, and losing themselves on the road, coming all the way back hopeful of something else” (Kerouac Almost on the Road). Kerouac seems aware of the obstacles stopping his journey, while his characters seem naïve to them.
Also, Kerouac portrays himself through Sal as someone who enjoys meeting strangers. Yet when was given the opportunity he passed. “A drunken Indian wanted me to go drinking with him, but I cautiously declined” (Kerouac Almost on the Road). Unlike Kerouac, Sal shows the capacity to suck one down with anyone. While Eddie was still in part a stranger, Sal says, “We got bored. I decided to spend a buck on beer; we went to an old saloon in Stuart and had a few. There he got as drunk as he ever did in his Ninth Avenue night back home…” (Kerouac on the Road). Kerouac believes himself to be open to new opportunities like Sal but his past elitism restrains him from doing so.
Lastly and most importantly, Kerouac has an intrinsic definition of happiness that involves the achievement of lofty ideals. He says, “You have to believe in life before you can accomplish anything. (…)Why live if not for excellence.” (Kerouac Almost on the Road). For Sal, happiness is a quick transfer while hitching. He recounts, “… he blinked his tail lights at the other guy and slowed down for me to jump out, which I did with my bag, and the other truck, acknowledging this exchange, stopped for me, and once again, in the twink of nothing, I was in another big high cab, all set to go hundreds of miles across the night, and I was happy!” (Kerouac on the Road).
While revealing himself in his characters Kerouac chooses to write how he longs to live instead of how he does live. He writes both pieces in first person allowing his true self to come forth in his fictional work as he does in his diary. When comparing the collection of writings it shows that we as a culture do not often live up to our own definition of what is right, what makes us happy, and what is good for us as a society. We find it easier to walk the path that has been laid before us rather than taking a journey “on the road” in search of something better… whether we find it or not.