Kerouac's Use of Literary Devices

I must say that “The Railroad Earth” by Jack Kerouac was an interesting read. The story has so many literary elements and his language is so reflective I began to almost empathize with the narrated experience. His descriptions were so playful and nonconforming and yet you find the entire passage full of literary devices. At first I found a few errors and then realized that they were left there on purpose. Life is full of unexpected surprises and his writing emulates that effect.  I had a hard time keeping pace with his fluctuating expressions and thought processes since the entire passage tickles the brain with streams of consciousness. Kerouac endlessly writes run on sentences expressing an entire thought streaming into the mind at levels that literally create a mindscape (escape from reality) of inner feelings as if to have a conversation with himself, like an interior monologue.

Some of the key factors in this particular work have obvious literary devices while he simultaneously freewrites. I thinks it’s interesting that his freewriting is incorporated to create patterns in his thought process. This is where I see the literary elements and his spontaneity. He originally writes long sentences using just the basic quotes and periods to separate his thoughts but then he causally begins to add caesuras. This literary device is commonly used in poetry or music and his story is full of them; they are the dashes that create pauses to a thought. For example, on page 42 in my ebook he uses it to end the sentence “‘eat or get out-t-t-t-‘—“ which not only stops the thought but specifically puts emphasis on the pronunciation of the word “out” adding yet another literary device; onomatopoeia, which is used to mimic the sound it is describing. 

In this case he describes his walks up Harrison with sound emphasis saying “the boom-crash of truck traffic” putting the mind into yet another depth of his interior monologue. Kerouac imitates sounds throughout the text entertaining the reader through his stream of thought. I liken his writing to the flashes of light that peak through the windows of a train passing through the tunnel because you only get glimpses of what he tries to express and then the reader tunes out until he imitates some form of sound bringing the reader back into his stream of consciousness.

As his writing fluctuates, his expressions and thought process leave the reader to contemplate on the next journey of what seems to be a detour. Kerouac serves as a tour guide that maps your mind into what seems to be a detour of culdesacs (streets with no exit) that does not relate to the next thought but brings you to a whole new road map like a tree with limbs. One of my favorite lines is as follows and serves as an example of his abstract thinking:

                I put the light out on the sad dab mad grub

                little diving room and hustle out into the fog of the flow,

                descending the creak hall steps where the old men are

    not yet sitting with Sunday morn papers because still

    asleep or some of them I can now as I leave hear begin-

    ning to disfawdle to wake in their rooms with their

    moans and yorks and scrapings and horror sounds, I’m

    going down the steps to work, glance to check time of

    watch with clerk cage clock.— (48)

The words seem to have a rhyme at one moment and then the next they contain alliteration repeating not the word but the same sound of the word making the reading a little frustrating but interesting. Kerouac is playful in describing the context of the story not only in his expressions but the figurative meanings as well. I found it a little frustrating to keep up with his abstract thinking but this is how he manipulates the mind; highlighting the journey into his stream of consciousness allows the reader to mindscape which is a way of temporarily escaping reality in his interior monologue. He is both creative and innovative in this particular work which I thought is the best I've read so far from his collections. Thankfully it was a shorter piece.