The Way To Salvation

Jack Kerouac was one of the representative writers of Beat Generation in1950sand his master piece was regarded as the testament of Beat Movement. Since itspublishing in1957, the novel has caused a great social reaction, especially amongyoung people. Almost everyone bought and read On the Road and started theirtravelling on the road, just like Dean and Sal, the two leading men in the novel.However, critics carried out different evaluations of Kerouac and his novel. Kerouacand Beat Generation played an important role in history of1950s American Cultureand Ideas and affected the following American cultures. But their decadent lifestyle,sex and drug experiments were blamed badly. And their imaginations about Americansociety, cultures and customs were immature and na ve. From1950s to nowadays, alarge number of researches on the novel has been performed by kinds of researchesand from different angles. But most of them focused their attention on pursuit ofAmerican dreams, analysis of Zen thought, reasons of rebelling, inquiry of characters,ranger themes in Western Literature, Postmodern aesthetic. Few researchers andscholars cared about the ecological ideas in the novel.The thesis attempted to analyze On the Road from the perspective of ecology,with three sides of ecological images, dialogue components and non-narrativediscourses so as to reveal the author’s ecological emotions and ideas and finallystimulated readers’. The two protagonists were endowed with symbolic significance.One was the western son of Nature and the other was an Eastern young man wholoved and longed forward to the earth and Nature. In the novel, people held differentopinions on Nature and the conflicts were showed through dialogues and would makecontributions to highlight the theme. With the help of ecological analysis, the meaningof On the Road not only lied in the pursuit of ego but also pointing out one road toego: to get close to Nature in peace.The thesis was divided into five parts. Introduction part gave an outline of theauthor, the novel, the background and the theory and reviewed the importantresearches on the novel. The first chapter discussed the four ecological images: Dean Moriaty, Sal Paradise, the road and the sun with profound ecological meanings. Thus,the author’s ecological ideas and awareness of potential dangers were vividly showed.The second chapter seized “dialogue component”. The theme was highlighted withthe help of voices of pros and cons. The third chapter emphasized the non-narrativediscourse. By means of explanation, expression and revelation, the author’sconsciousness and inclination was conveyed and knowable to the readers. Theconclusion part reaffirmed the author’s ecological emotions and roused people’s loveto Nature considered their attitude towards it.