Sunday, August 21, 2011

#1 On The Road

I think having Sal as the narrator is unreliable. Being able to talk about your own life gives you the idea that you can twist the truth to appeal the audience. For example, his trips cross country could have been a lie. He could have had his own car he used. However, just to make it sound interesting, he hitched rides most of the way.(p. 14-16) Making little fibs like this could make a person sound interesting or hide an embarrassing moment of an event.
Posted by Anonymous at 9:35 PM

3 comments:

Alessandra said...

I disagree that Sal was lying about the trips across the country. He always gives a ton of detailed information, it would be ridiculous for him to have made it all up. During that time it was more common for people to hitch hike, so it's highly likely that he did. He also gives so much information about things that could be embarrassing, I doubt he's trying to hide the truth. I think the only reason he'd be an unreliable narrator is because he might have altered things in his own memory or had certain ideas about things that influenced his writing.

August 22, 2011 at 8:56 AM
Andrew said...

Well, it's pretty much confirmed history that Kerouac hitch hiked across the country, but you're correct in the sense that we can't take everything he wrote in Sal's perspective as the truth.

How do you think he could have been more reliable as a narrator? It's not like he hid embarrassing things. He admitted in the book that he considered shooting through a jewelry store window, stealing all of the jewelry, and running away with his friend's girlfriend to Canada.

August 22, 2011 at 12:10 PM
ave.P said...

I see how you think he could have been making stuff up to make it interesting, but that's alot of stuff to make up. Though this is the edited version, so we don't know too much about the difference between the two. I think overall Sal is a good narrator, maybe a tad bit over detailed on his 3 page Dean rants, but for the most part it's a fun, flowing account of crazy stuff he's done, and crazy stuff he's thought about doing. hahah.

September 22, 2011 at 2:28 AM

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