Neal Cassady - An American Icon

An American Icon

In On the Road the narrator, Sal Paradise (the personification of Jack Kerouac) states to the reader, "He was simply a youth tremendously excited with life, and though he was a con-man, he was only conning because he wanted to so much to live and to get involved with people who would otherwise pay no attention to him...Somewhere along the line I knew there'd be girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line, the pearl would be handed to me."