Searching On The Road

Burroughs and BowieIs Sal really trying to get anywhere? What I find so appealing about the characters and feel of this novel, and the entire Beat Generation, is that there is no destination. There is a sense of wanderlust. He seems to be searching for something, but it is unclear as to what this something is. He moves from place to place, exploring, living, barley getting by, and then getting antsy, moving on. The fact that Sal hitchhikes for the first section of the book also adds greatly to the feeling of wanderlust. How much of a plan can you really have when your real travel is in the hands of somebody you have never met? Although Kerouac found great inspiration in his travels, and most of the beats did form their ideas around these travels, there is no real sense of purpose, or destination. This is what is amazing about the so-called “three man generation” and On The Road, the lack of reasoning. It is as if they have found the extreme side of escapism, constant motion, heavy use of drugs, never settling, never making connections with people that could potentially tie them to one specific place. Are they disillusioned with the world? In a sense, they were the “Lost Generation” of their own times, but they didn’t have the same approach. The Beats managed to expatriate themselves while staying mainly in the United States. Instead of settling in a foreign country, they didn’t settle in their own country. It leads me to so many questions, such as which approach is better? Did either generation get what they were looking for? What exactly were they looking for? And if neither of these generations managed to find “it”, do we, in this age, in our own generation, have any better luck?