Identify a rhetorical message intrinsic to On the Roadby Jack Kerouac. The message should be examined through the lenses of theme, character, and...

The
rhetorical message of Kerouac's work exists in what he wants the reader to derive from it.
Kerouac's message embraces the need to pursue and cherish individual freedom.  Through different
elements, the narrative enables this message. Theof the friendship between Sal and Dean is one
way this message is enhanced.  Both characters believe their friendship to be free of social
convention.  It is evident in the freedom of mobility both possess, being able to move "on
the road" with ease and without attachments that might limit their pursuit and embrace of
individual autonomy.  Dean says as much to Sal:  "Why not, man? Of course we will if we
want to, and all that. There's no harm ending that way. You spend a whole life of
noninterference with the wishes of others, including politicians and the rich, and nobody
bothers you and you cut along and make it your own way."  The need to "make it your
own way" is of vital importance both to their friendship, helping to advance Kerouac's
rhetorical message.

Kerouac's style in enhances
its rhetorical message.  This is throughout the narrative.  Consider one example when Dean is
talking to Carlo Marx:

 ...the only people for me are the
mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at
the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like
fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.

In this quote, the choice and use of language helps to enhance the
novel's rhetorical message of freedom.  Consider the notion of "madness" that is
equated to an unrestrained sense of freedom.   of "spiders across the stars" and
"yellow roman candles exploding" both help to further the imagery of freedom through .
 Another example of how technique can enhance rhetorical message is seen in Kerouac's phrasing
of the road's meaning, in general:  "Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever
so on the road.  Freedom as moving forward and ahead is conveyed through the descriptive
language of the road.  Suchindicates that what is past is secondary to what is ahead, helping to
enhance the feel of freedom.  Throughout the work, Kerouac's language and word choice helps to
convey that external pressure or "distortion" must be repelled in the name of
individual freedom and action. Kerouac's style goes very far in carrying out his
message.

Kerouac is deliberate in his message of praising individual freedom.
It is communicated in theme and in stylistic elements.  Kerouac emphasizes it in the novel's
end, deliberately leaving the reader with the understanding of freedom being the only possession
of the individual.  Sal envisions America and how people see it:  "dreaming in the
immensity of it."  For Kerouac, the ending of the novel is one in which freedom is
synonymous with what it means to be in America.  This becomes an essential part of his
rhetorical message.  It is a message that is embedded not only in the characterizations and the
way in which they are described and enhanced, but also in the setting of America, itself.
 Kerouac chooses to end with a statement about how freedom and its pursuit is a part of both the
nation and the people who inhabit it.  In doing so, Kerouac's message about freedom and its need
to be upheld at all costs resonates with the reader upon the work's
conclusion.