...Thought about On the Road while on the road:)

So, I was driving home from school today and I began thinking about my Etymology post. What was I going to say? I haven't gotten much reading done and I am going to do that tonight, so what is something my book has touched on in the scanty pages that I have read?? Then, I began to think about just how busy I seem to be everyday! Between my schoolwork, homework(honors and AP classes don't help), marching band, my little brother, parents, eating, contest essays, scholarship searches, applications, and keeping a steady boyfriend, I feel as if my downtime has dwindled to none! And in all honesty, it probably has. Then I began to think about Mr. Kerouac. In his novel, On the Road, he really lacks any responsibility. He travels and moves across the country, working when he needs to, drinking when he doesn't and I began to wonder how anyone could embrace such a lack of responsibility. But, Sal really does begin to embrace his own responsibilities eventually, when he meets the woman of his dreams!:) A Mexican beauty, with blue eyes! I thought the blue eyes were an interesting tidbit.  He knew he needed to get a job and support this woman and her son as well as get back to New York! And he knew he had to get enough money to go by bus. I believe he will slowly begin to realize that the Beatnik lifestyle was not successful for a reliable life. Whereas I do not have to support a family, I am preparing myself to become self-sufficient.

     Sal, the main character, also seems set apart from the others. He seems...just to be different. For pages and pages I wonder why he never conforms to this Beatnik society, but then he does. But even when he stoops to the level of the Beatniks, he still seems to be above them...because he's searching. While the Beatniks seem to be a group that are accepting life and drinking and getting high and just getting by. Riding the  rails. Drinking. Smoking. Hitch-hiking. Stealing. Working....when you need to. But acceptance...acceptance of the lifestyle seems to be a key factor in their lifestyle. However, Sal never accepts it. He wishes to fit in with his friends, but he never really does. He seems to be an observer and a searcher. Is he only a man searching for love? Or some kind of meaning to life? Will he ever find it? Is the American Dream fading? Or has it just changed?

The above is my word vomit. I try to word vomit everyday. I wonder if doing that can create feelings of discontent...the constant stream of intense consciousness. But maybe I'm just over-thinking it! Hahah...that's a little funny. Over-thinking word vomit...Hmm...That's a way to drive yourself insane. Oh! In On the Road, some of Sal's friends talked about the "machine." And how you could never "stop the machine." What is the machine? That is what the author truly leaves you to wonder? Is it the mind? Thought? Word Vomit? Useless exchange of useless information? It seemed like the last one, however, maybe it was something deep and intelligent. Maybe it was too complex for me to understand.