On the Road, Post 1, Question 4

4. Consider both novels. What do you notice about the treatment of women? The characterization of women? Or the omission of women? What might it suggest or signify in either novel?

In both books, in several ways, women are seen as objects for men to use. In The Road, the boy’s mother is seen only in flashbacks, and her role seems to be accompanying the man, and birthing and caring for the boy. One of the other woman mentioned, whom the boy meets at the end, is also given a nurturing role, “The woman when she saw him put her arms around him and held him. Oh, she said, I am so glad to see you.”(286). Even a woman they see in the distance on their voyage appears to be pregnant and traveling with several men. Although it is a positive thing that in The Road, women are viewed as caring and protective, it also stereotypes them.

In On the Road, there are more women mentioned, but for the most part, they are objectified as well, albeit in a different way, pleasing men and doing little else. On page 16, Sal Paradise describes what is waiting for him in Denver: “Marylou was there; and there was mention of a mighty gang including Ray Rawlins and his beautiful blonde sister Babe Rawlins; two waitresses Dean knew, the Bettencourt sisters; and even Roland Major…So I rushed past the pretty girls, and the prettiest girls in the world live in Des Moines”. He looks forward to seeing his friends, and several women, most of whose names he doesn’t even know. The idea of women (and assumedly, sleeping with them), drives him forward on his journey. Also, the way he describes the women he desires, “beautiful”, “pretty”, shows how little depth Sal considers women to have.

In addition, in On the Road, several of the women Sal does get to know are portrayed as physically beautiful, but personality-wise, unpleasant, or mean, such as Dean’s first wife, Marylou, “But, outside of being a sweet little girl, she was awfully dumb and capable of doing horrible things.”(2), or Remi’s girl, “His girl Lee Ann has a bad tongue and gave him a call-down every day.”(62). Most of the women in On the Road are not seen as friends or mental/emotional equals to men, but as objects whose sole purpose is to physically please men.