Assignment: On the Road

Try writing your own narrative where you blend a road trip with details from vacations
and trips that you have taken in the past. Try to emulate Kerouac's informal style in your
writing. You final piece should be around 250-words. Follow up the road trip narrative
with a reflection on how the informal style of writing was either challenging or freeing.
Also, discuss who this piece of writing might appeal to.

Preparing, both mentally and physically, for this trek into the daring North’s of Ontario
well in advance, we were ready. Yet, somehow, we weren’t. Once we’d left home base
we both felt a nudging feeling that something was to go wrong. We’d heard story of the
many treacherous adventures that others had taken, but somehow we had felt confident
in what we were about to face.

We took the car up into the North. We followed directions for as long as we could.
“Follow the road along the water,” everyone had said. And so we did, until we lost
signal, the water ended and the maps showed us amongst a vast and empty field. At
this point the rain was pouring, it was hard to see the hand-made wooden signs that
gave the slightest chance of getting direction. Night was upon us so we stopped at the
side of the road and slept through it.

Once the sun rose, we got back at it. The sky had cleared and we’d found a road to
follow. We were lucky not to encounter any big wild animals. This part of the road was
enjoyable and daring. The path we were on seemed not to be ending, yet we knew it
had to lead to one final, very far away, destination. With the music on loud and the
windows rolled down we followed it for hours on end.

After a while we noticed a few people walking alongside this country road. No houses in
sight we were surprised to see them there. We pulled over, asked for direction. “You’re
going in the right direction, there’s a great camping site about fifty kilometres from here.”
And so we continued. It had almost turned to night when we made it to the camping site.
We knew we were in the right place, the smells were as they were described and we
had made our way back to the water. We were home.

Reflection:
I really like Jack Kerouac writing, I’ve read ‘On The Road’ in French - it’s my dad’s
favourite book. I find that his writing gives effect of Jack telling us the story as we sit
next to each other. It really creates a friendly connection between Jack and the reader.
However, I cannot say for sure whether I enjoy writing in this style. I partially do
because I find it quite freeing - not many rules, but, I cannot let myself go enough to get
to Jack’s level of freedom - and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing… I think Jack’s writing
appeals to someone that seeks adventure and wants to experience it through literature,
and relate to it.