"Bezsensowna, koszmarna droga" a amerykańskie drogi i autostrady lat pięćdziesiątych w powieści Jacka Kerouaca W drodze

Abstract

Beginning from the 1940s, the idea of the road, being on the road, the feeling of freedom, were crucial issues for the American society. It seems the more surprising that in Jack Kerouac's novel entitled On the Road, those entities create a feeling of melancholia, abandonment and rejection. Sal Paradise, the novel's main protagonist and the author's alter ego, even speaks about "the senseless nightmare road" (On the Road, New York 1 972, p. 239) during his voyages across the American continent. This shows an underlying social conservatism and a specific tension in the approach of the American society towards roads, and especially, highways. For Kerouac's protagonists roads are a symbol of freedom and empowerment on many levels; they free them from capitalism, traditional family bonds, responsibility connected with adulthood, heterosexuality, racial heritage or national identity. However, all those evoke a fear of complete freedom, without any restrictions and without being tied to any traditions or ideas. At the same time, the protagonists of On the Road desire to have control over their lives. Similar tendencies could be sensed in the entire American society in the 1 950s. Citizens applauded the development of the Interstate Highway System, while fearing the loss of values, upon which their society had been founded. Sal Paradise's approach to life on the road evolves and changes throughout the novel. At first, he is deeply fascinated with it, he romanticizes the idea of movement, lives to have a tumultuous relationship with Dean Moriarty, until, finally, he realizes that life on the road is a life of lack and loss. However, Kerouac with his beautifully crafted descriptions of the American landscape and the people inhabiting it, portrays a multitude oflifestyles, desires and values, which epitomizes the diversity of the American nation.