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The vagabond teenage life, and the instinct pursuit of “bread” and sex, determines that he can’t sit there complaining, but should take actions to make changes. With a positive attitude, Dean is never in self-abandon, but being honest with his soul, and faithful to himself. He is one of those warm-blooded young men who dare to be different in the depressive society, and have the courage to follow their heart. What he wants to do is living for the present, swinging with the moment, releasing himself from any constraints, capturing the supreme happiness, the highest and the most refined emotion to which human beings can attain.
In addition, Dean Moriarty is a rebellious hero, a tough man who dares to think and dares to do. He has the courage to challenge traditional value and social shackle, keeps moving on to against anything he disagree with. To some extent, he is not just a rebellious hero against social institutions, but also a defender of peace. In the text, there is an episode that reveals his opinion to war. Dean and Sal, who happened to see Harry Truman’s inauguration in Washington, had a view of “all kinds of war material that looked murderous in the snowy grass”. At that time, Dean made some ironic comments towards those “Great displays of war”, which showed his opposed attitude towards war as well as the belligerent America.
As for the pure land in Dean’s inside world, a fragment captures the glimpses of it as follow. When they arrived in Mexico, they encountered a flock of Indian girls peddling little pieces of rock crystal, their inner pure souls were reflected on the angles’ naive faces. “Their great brown, innocent eyes looked into ours with such soulful intensity that not one of us had the slightest sexual thought about them; moreover they were very young, some of them eleven and looking almost thirty. ‘Look at those eyes!’ breathed Dean. They were like the eyes of the Virgin Mother when she was a child.” Confronting those tender faces of Indian girls, looking into their innocent eyes, Dean did not feel any desire about them at all, while touched deeply for those innocent eyes reflecting the image of himself – a haggard-faced vagrant. At that moment, he felt as if he was peeking at the inside himself by chance. Uncharacteristically, he became soft and fond, spook genially to those kids, and showed a sincere merciful look. Dean rummaged through the trunk to find out a wristwatch as an exchange for “the sweetest and purest and smallest crystal she (one of them) has personally picked from the mountain”. When those girls expressed a huge dismay at the moment they were leaving and ran after the car for quite a long time, Dean, a mad man who used to be considered as indifferent to others, felt heart break and fell into deep concerns about those girls. This is a little disclosing of Dean’s delicate soul.
Besides, the kindness of Dean also reflected in the way he treats hitchhikers along the way. In order to get money for gasoline, they usually pick up hitchhikers in their way, and ask them for a few dollars. Some of them lied to Dean that they will borrow money from their friends or relatives after arriving at the destination, but finally they get no money. When encountering this kind of situation, Dean is seldom angry. Actually, he is very willing to help these people. Once upon a time, they met a crippled kid walking alone, who had no even one dollar. Dean sympathized with him and showed a serious look: “Come on in, fella, we’ll take you out.” At these moments, Dean Moriarty is as holy as an angel.
3. The representative of Beat Generation
3.1 What creates Dean Moriarty
3.1.1 External factors: social background
The story of On the Road took place in the middle of 20th century. For the time, the United States just won the Second World War; the whole society was presenting a prosperous scene. At the same time, America stepped into the stage of mass production. The commodity economy developed rapidly, the population grew fast. On the other hand, during that period, the shadow of war still lingered; the terror of the cold war was coming. The United States, stuck deeply in confrontation with the Soviet Union, facing pressure from oversea, in the meantime, domestically, was cleaning up the so-called "communist ideology" and hitting the progressive forces. From the late 1940s to 50s, the "McCarthyism" anti-communist, xenophobic movement involving the United States every aspect in the field of politics, culture and education, the whole country was under the dark clouds of power politics. The young generation lives despondingly under the high pressure of political and social environment. People lived a life that materially rich while spiritually barren. They did not know when the ruthless wars will stage a comeback. Every day, people live under the huge shadow of fears and unease; social conflicts were growing sharply. In the book, the author expresses his point of view about the American society through Old Bull Lee’s words: “They prefer making cheap goods so’s everybody’ll have to go on working and punching time clocks and organizing themselves in sullen unions and floundering around while the big grab goes on in Washington and Moscow.” It is full of irony, while enough to show the corruption of American society at that time.