"On the Road" Part II

In the second excerpt of “On the Road,” the reader is taken on an adventure to San Francisco and is introduced to Remi Boncoeur and his girlfriend Lee Ann. We find our character stuck in a awkward and hopeless situation where he is forced to work as an officer, shares a one room shack with the unhappy couple and monotonously plods away writing a Hollywood script that will never amount to anything. Although his adventure is wild and full of ups and downs and interesting twists, it is evident that the narrator, Sal Paradise is truly unhappy in his situation and longs for an escape. He does so it a string of unfortunate events that severs his relationship to Remi and sets him on a new path to adventure.

In these chapters I realized that the narrator of these stories is constantly allowing others experiences to shape his won, He rarely makes decisions for himself and is molded by the people around him and their individual choices. I find it hard to follow a character that is powerless to lead his own life and create his own destiny. He lacks motivation when it comes to fulfilling his dreams and never takes the steps needed to break free of his friends shadows, he would rather stay within the shadow and observe the steady downfall of his friends, while documenting the decline in his novel.

"On the Road" Part I

In the first several chapters of “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac, he sets the scene for what is to come, and lays the ground work for a great journey and quest he is to set out on. He introduces several characters and a small background of his characters past life. After reading the introduction to the book and learning about Jack’s journey and friends influence it it evident that he drew greatly from first hand experiences in his life, and embellished slightly to write a rich and extremely detailed faux autobiography. I loved the introduction to the character Dean Moriarty, whom Jack admires greatly and is drawn to, it the quote below, he practically lays out why this novel was written. It’s due to the fact that the author, like the main character wants to live life to the fullest, and thus attaches himself to people who live it wildly. He chooses to live his life along one great extreme, violently throwing himself into weird, improbable and unstable situations, collecting the memories one by one, instead of sitting back and allowing life to take him on his course, he wills the course he is to take.

“But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to life, mad to talk, mad to be saved. Desirous of everything at thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candle exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blur center light pop and everybody goes “Awww!” page 5-6

"Jack Kerouac, the Introduction"

The introduction of Jack Kerouac I found to be very interesting and informative. It felt like a small autobiography, and brief overview of the struggle to become something truly great. I thought it comical that Jack never really held down a normal job, and odd that he never felt the pressure to support his mother, instead of her supporting him for most of his life, in fact he relies on several women including his wife to support him as he struggles to write the next great American novel. The overview depicted a lost soul, wandering about the United States, desperately grasping for acceptance amongst his peers and literary critics. He latches onto characters in real life to develop his own characters within his novels. His involvement with large groups of men to find inspiration reminds me of the art movement that happened in New York with Andy Warhol. He surrounded himself with other artists to gain inspiration for his own genius. I also loved the genius of his writing style when it came to writing “On the Road.” Taping together long pieces of paper and writing non stop to kick start his mind into producing something truly unique and honest. Something about this I just really liked. His determination and belief in himself as a writer really shows through as he created a new way to write a novel.

            “Writing On the Road, Kerouac finally found his own voice and his true subject-the story of his own search for a place as an outsider in America.” Page xx

"CHE Part II"

In the Diary of Che Guevara we read of his military experiences throughout South America. In “The Murdered Puppy,” I was sick with the unnecessary animal cruelty and indifference of life. Only until confronted with the eyes of a dog did the men feel remorse for their actions. It does say something however that the author chose to include this memory and experience is his diary. Hopefully, the experience taught these men something about the powerful abusing something innocent and unable to protect itself. The correlation of the Latin people and the powerful white man it evident within the story. The Latin people wanted to be included in the world, just as the puppy wanted to be part of the march, and the powerful wanted nothing to do with it, so they strangled it, a simple metaphor for what the powerful and corrupt world did unto Central and South America. The first year struggles and hardships the guerilla’s soldiers faced is documented in further chapters. I however, enjoyed the more personal account of the first chapter, even though it was disturbing, to that of the second chapter, I felt like I got a more accurate description of everyday life on the road as a guerilla soldier, than that of the descriptions of their movements and hardships accounted for in the second chapter.

"CHE Part I"

In the excerpt spoken by Ernesto Che Guevara in New York during 1964, the Latin American leader addresses the United Nations in a powerful speech demanding the recognition of Latin Americas power, and their plight over the ages. He calls for the de-colonization of the Americas. His observations of Central and South America lead him to the conclusion that his region had a deeply ingrained economic inequality that was a direct result of years of capitalism, colonization and imperialism that had destroyed the entire make up of the region. His only response to salvage what they had left was to bring about a world revolution. The first part of his speech is powerful and addresses each region of Central and South America, using examples of wrong doings. I learned a lot from the speech, my own education limited in accordance to South America.

"Repent Harlequin"

In the story, “Repent Harlequin,” the author examines the intangible aspect of time. The writing itself reminded me of something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, some whimsical fairy tale with gizmos and gadgets, but as I read on, I felt this particular fairy tale had a much darker and grim side. It was hard to get into the story, because as a reader I am so used to reading beginning, middle and end, so it challenged me to open my mind to the theory of starting in the middle. The theme of fighting against the norm and social constructs of society and rebelling against the life you are told to live run throughout the excerpt. I particularly liked the line on page 878, where the Ticktockman is speaking about the making of a man.

"This is what he is," said the Ticktockman with genuine softness,

"but not who he is. This time-card I'm holding in my left hand has a

name on it, but it is the name of what he is, not who he is. The cardioplate

here in my right hand is also named, but not whom named, merely

what named. Before I can exercise proper revocation, I have to know

who this what is.” Page 878

I liked this part because it addressed that what a person might do for a living is not what a person is, and that sometimes within our society we attach value to a career or money or what a person might possess and not to who that person really is, based on their soul and good deeds that that do.

"Barrington Bunny"

The story of “The Barrington Bunny,” by Martin Bell,  was immensely sad, and I had a hard time finding the lesson attached to it. Was the lesson that it is better to give than receive? Or perhaps that one life can change the lives of many others, or is the lesson that one must appreciate the gifts that they are given, and use them to help others? The story is written in a style that seems geared towards children, but i don't think i would want to read it to mine. I think the message was lost on me. I don’t understand why the bunny must give his life to learn a lesson.Was this story about the ultimate sacrifice, or friendship? The symbolism within the text is strong, and each character and action have a heavy weight attached to them. But ultimately, i just found the story to be sad.