Neal Cassidy and The West

Going west is a major theme in Jack Kerouac’s novel, On The Road. Along with the actual use of the phrase “going west,” Kerouac exemplifies the ideals of the West within the food and drink he consumes as well as the people he idolizes. The cowboys that Kerouac comes in contact with are not simply cowboys but are representative of the West as an ideal. The West was about adventuring, manhood, and discovering the great expanse of land called America. Kerouac starts the novel’s timeline not long after his father passes, and what follows does not harbor many memories of the man. But through his friendship with Neal Cassidy, Kerouac is motivated to stop “vaguely planning and never specifically taking off” and finally venture off to Denver to meet his friends (109). Throughout his travels,  Kerouac embraces things that remind him of his western ideal: apple pie, whiskey, cowboys, as well as his friends themselves.  But the idea of being his own man through going west is somewhat deluded by Kerouac’s co-dependence on Cassidy. Starting the book by basically recounting their first meeting, and commenting all the way through about his whereabouts and activities; Kerouac illuminates his intense need for a guide, or to be more specific a father figure. Kerouac tends to ingest his friends personality traits while he stays with them, but Neal Cassidy is the only one that Kerouac finds himself so entwined with that he actually marks his life by his comings and goings. With a father who was not a stable figure for his son, Kerouac goes in search of a father figure within the west and the individuals who embody it.