On the Road (Post One, Question Two)

2. Can you tell Kerouac loved language? Reflect on where in the novel this love-of-language is most evident and explore its impact on the telling of the story.

It is so obvious, Kerouac's love of language. The way he uses the most simple words in such a new way, he creates almost a new meaning for them. One of my favorite passages is "mañana, a lovely word, and one that probably means heaven." (94) Though a short while later, he uses it to show he knows that it means tomorrow, he shows the weight and importance of the word to him by inventing a whole new meaning for it. He uses everyday language, with words like sad, great and drunk in ways that gets you to think of the word in a different way. The way he thinks about the world comes out in his usage of these tiny, common words.

You could tell that Kerouac liked to break language rules, especially when it came to repetition and the word "and." While, typically, phrases that are repeated mostly gets under my skin, Kerouac's use of it struck a chord with me. He used it at the right times and he could use the word "and" multiple times in a sentence without making it awkward, like most authors do. It fits in directly with his writing style. He writes "I went into a chili joint and the waitress was Mexican and beautiful." (32) If he had written that the waitress was a beautiful Mexican, it wouldn't have been as fitting. He also has such an ability to describe someone as well as describing the scene around him. He dives deep into characters seemlessly, without effort. He fleshes out not only physical attributes but also their inner natures with flawless precision.