Kerouac and Tyler, On the Road and Saint Maybe
Uploaded by shimmer on Apr 27, 2006
Wikipedia encyclopedia suggests “the word experience may refer (somewhat ambiguously) both to mentally unprocessed immediately-perceived events as well as to the purported wisdom gained in subsequent reflection on those events or interpretation of them. Most wisdom-experience accumulates over a period of time, though one can also experience (and gain general wisdom-experience from) a single specific momentary event.” In novels On the Road and Saint Maybe, by Jack Kerouac and Anne Tyler, the authors stress upon life as a set of experiences and how these builds a person.
Utterly and completely carefree are the characters, blowing and twisting on the maelstrom of their whims, each lunging twinge of a mental process reflected in miles. A laughing blue sky above waiting to swallow one alive, a gleefully roaring engine burning hungrily in front, the road and its devils grinning wickedly below, Jack Kerouac's characters go flying off randomly along the twisted contours of their lives in his autobiographical epic On the Road.
In Part I, Chapter 11, when Paradise abandons his screenplay in order to find a job,”shadow of disappointment” crosses Remi Boncoeur's face; even though no words are spoken at this point, the look on poor Remi's face is quite enough to form a rhetorical appeal. The look conveys the sentiments of the central characters of the book that trivialities such as everyday jobs should be cast aside in favor of following one's dream. For one, this is an appeal from character; Remi, crestfallen that Sal has turned his back on his dream, is a person who has no qualms about stealing couches, or food, or stripping a ghost ship of its valuables. In this way, his desire to live the moment is connected with his questionable morals--a problem somewhat relieved when his general goodness is illustrated by having him try to organize an evening out in order to put his father at ease. When Remi wants something, he takes it, but he's a decent, big-hearted person overall--almost childlike. It should be observed that he has the amorality of a little kid. Therefore, this appeal from character should be seen as a cry for living one's dream-- an almost naive way of thinking of things, seen from the childlike eyes of Remi Boncoeur. Second, this passage contains an appeal to emotion. Remi's facial expression intends to prod that part of Sal, and the reader, that would like to continually live on...