Looking West for answers

Sal Paradise, a newly divorced man, and Dean Moriarty, a wild and reckless boy, are hitting the road. The pair, along with other secondary characters, travel to and from the west and its wild promises. It is the 1940s and there is a lot of romanticism about what life is like out west. Sal and Dean are living without restrictions or worries, although they are different in how they think. They also make promises they cannot keep. In the end, the men become different people. The journey has shaped them into someone different from when their adventures started. Especially, Sal.

BTSYA / Teen Reader (16):
It may not be the most attention-grabbing story, an important piece of literature. Readers get a sense of life in the 1940s while also having their eyes opened to other themes like conformity, that are not bounded by time. On the Road was required reading for school. It did get boring to me at times, but it is not a hard read. I would recommend this to teenagers in high school and older.

Readers interested in Americana and the "trends" of the 1940s may find this an enjoyable, insightful read. Some things - like trying to figure out who you are, and wishing the rules would go away - are timeless themes that make the book interesting even for today's youth.

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