views of women

Many of the adults I've talked to (particularly female) call On the Road "A boys book". Throughout the book, Jack and his friends perceive women as objects. Look at Neal, for example who has had several girlfriends/fiances/wives/ex-wives in the book, but none of them are of any value to him. If he truly respected any of them, he would care about his unfaithfulness.

These men clearly see women and either objects or mother figures which is still a completely unfortunate perception that is constantly present in our society then and now. These men never describe women as anything but "pretty" or "gone"( Whatever that means). There is never any mention of a woman's personality and in almost all of the relationships, the men rule. If, by some chance there is even an inkling of a woman having any power, all the men think she's a bad person and are afraid of her.

Women are totally subordinate in this book and this is almost surprising to me. Wasn't beat culture supposed to be open, with meshing of the black and white cultures and the acceptance of others? It seems that women were not involved in this equation.