The motive for the insufficiency of language in On the RoadHenry Glass, a kid fresh out of an Indiana penitentiary who takes a bus to Denver with Sal Paradise, tells him about his contacts with the Bible in prison, then explains to him the dangers of the phenomenon of signification (I firmly believe that Kerouac had no deconstructionist subtext in this passage; he is not no longer likely to be a neo-Marxist attempt to explain the class conflict between signifiers and signifieds): anyone who gets out of prison soon and starts talking about their release date "means" for the other guys who have to stay. We will take him by the neck and say: “Don't mean with me! » That's a bad thing, to mean... do you hear me? (256) An eighteen-year-old prisoner's use of the word scholar is really funny. The comic effect here relies on the gap between the standard meaning and the contextual use of the word “mean”. There are a number of episodes in the novel with the same kind of humor: in the first chapter of the novel, which describes his first visit to New York, Dean comes up with absolutely idiotic tirades. For example, in discussion with Marilou, he mentions the need to "put off all these leftovers concerning our personal loves until later and to immediately start thinking about specific work plans...". (Kérouac 5). Or, when Sal asks him directly if he needed to cheat him out of a place to stay, he begins talking about "the internally realized Shopenhauer dichotomy" (ibid.). Dean's (mis)use of language can be somewhat redeemed by his intellectual virginity. and his true desire to be like his high-browed friend; indeed, being serious is important and can excuse almost anything. But what are we to make of how Carl... middle of paper ......rist - the heroes of the generation - never published (Krupat 407). Neither does Neil Cassidy, the silent genius behind the movement; but he, by the example of his life, provided the ideal which made Kerouac's gospel true. Works Cited Ashida, Margaret E. "Frog's and Frozen Zen." Prairie Schooner 34 (1960): 199-206. Blackburn, William. "Han Shan gets drunk with the butchers: Kerouac's Buddhism in On the Road, The Dharma Tramps and The Angels of Desolation." Literature East and West 21.1-4 (1977): 9-22.Suzuki, DT An introduction to Zen Buddhism. Ed. Christmas Humphreys; Before. CG Jung. London: Rider, 1983. Kerouac, Jack. On the road. Ed. Scott Donaldson. New York: Penguin, 1979. Krupat, Arnold. “Dean Moriarty as a holy hero.” On the road. Text and criticism. By Jack Kerouac. Ed. Scott Donaldson. New York: Penguin, 1979. 397-411.