On the Road

Early in the novel, Sal is working as a security guard, and he mentions that one night he waved his gun at a "fag," but Sal doesn't hurt anyone. Violent events don't really occur "onscreen," but Sal occasionally meets characters who relate violent stories. For example, on a bus ride through the Midwest, an ex-con tells Sal that the reason he was in jail was that he slashed the throat of a boy in a movie theater for "making a crack about my mother."

On the Road has no graphic descriptions of sex acts, but sex is mentioned often. Sal talks a lot about "making" girls or wanting them. Women's bodies are described sexually; Sal especially notices when thighs or breasts are partially showing. In one scene, Dean wants Sal to have sex with his (Dean's) wife, Mary Lou, in front of Dean, but Sal can't do it. Sal and Dean have sex with prostitutes while they're traveling in Mexico, and Sal is attracted to a "young girl" prostitute who he thinks is about 16. Dean gets married three times in the course of the book and impregnates two of the women.

On the Road includes lots of profanity, as well as homophobic language and outdated racial references. Profanity used includes "s--t" (spelled all sorts of ways to reflect different regional accents, such as "shee-it"), "bastard," "sonofabitch," "dammit," 'c--k." Sal refers to gay men as "fags" or "fairies." Sal calls African-Americans "negroes," reflecting language commonly used at the time the book was written.

Characters in On the Road smoke cigarettes and pot, and take Benzedrine; one section, a couple of characters use heroin, and the book describes them shooting up and their demeanor before and after their fix. Most characters also drink alcohol to excess (beer, port, many unspecified "drinks"). Sal and Dean are usually drunk, high, or both.