Final Thought on On the Road

          I like that our class came to a similar conclusion on Kerouac, that he is a huge follower. That had been something that I picked up while reading and I am glad I was not the only one to see it. Though Kerouac is the narrator and main character, the story is more about Neal Cassady, and ends up being a character study of him.

                Neal Cassady is endlessly fascinating to me because he does not seem like he could have ever been a real person. Neal just seems like a force of nature at times, taking whatever he wants and destroying things incidentally. Even though he is self-centered and even despicable at times, you cannot help but want to follow where he goes.  He has an overwhelming personality, presence, and energy that cause people to like him no matter how often he disappoints him.

                I am curious as to how much of the story is fictional. Neal Cassady in reality led an astonishingly full and interesting life, especially after his trips with Kerouac. He and several others formed a group called the Merry Pranksters who traveled all over the country in a multicolored bus, promoting the use of narcotics, especially hallucinogenics.  Their traveling caused them to become American icons and they soon became associated with many other well-known people, including Hunter S. Thompson, the Hell’s Angels, and the Grateful Dead. As noted in class, Cassady’s novel was not published until after his death. Cassady became an icon and a part of the Beat Generation through sheer personality, not through any literary means.

                It is no wonder it is easy for Kerouac to make him into a god like figure. His antics only get more insane and bombastic as the novel continues. When Kerouac spends more time with him and it becomes apparent that Neal uses and abuses everyone he meets, it is almost sad to watch Cassady as an idol fall. Neal is exhausting to be around, always emotional (every situation is life or death, and either a complete tragedy or the greatest thing to ever happen to anyone), always getting into legal trouble, an adrenaline junky with few regards to others’ feelings, and always needs money from his friends. He could easily be compared to a small child.

                As noted in the text though “God exists without qualms.” Neal could never be as intriguing and as likeable as he was if he were a normal person. It is because his actions are so over the top and that he is so passionate about life in general that he draws people to him. I would argue that despite Kerouac’s eventual (and completely understandable) disappointment in Cassady for failing to live up to the image he had created of him in his head, Cassady still retains his god-like status. The closing words “I think of Neal Cassady” could not be more fitting. Neal has become ingrained and immortalized into the public consciousness as deep as the concept of the road trip itself.