Along their journey throughout the book, On the Road, by Jack Kerouac both Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty have many different women involved in their lives and at some points even multiple ones at the same time. Through these relationships it opens up the play on the way men treat the idea of love, marriage and the women in their lives. Marriage and love are thrown around and have no attachment to their meanings nor do they hold a value to the men or the women; they were seen as an agreement with no strings attached. Women are portrayed as superficial and shallow. They are in a way seen as a service to men with the use of their bodies for sex. The women are also given very little dialogue. The men's perception of love throughout the book was pretty constant in the fact that they confused love with lust and put little to no emotion or thought into it. Sal often confuses love with lust when seeing women he finds attractive. “A pain stabbed my heart, as it did every time I saw a girl …show more content…
One of the first love interests brought up in the book was Camille, Dean's girlfriend while he was married to Mary Lou. Dean and Mary Lou end up making an arrangement while he's seeing and living with Camille so he can carry on and see the both of the women without having to involve or tell Camille about it. “I’ll go right on living at Camille’s like nothin, see, she won't know. We can work it, we’ve done it before.”(Kerouac 135). He continues on this path throughout the book and after divorcing his second wife Camille he marries Inez. While talking to Sal he says that “Inez loves [him]; she's told [him] and promised [him that he] can do anything [he] wants and there'll be a minimum of trouble. You see, man, you get older and troubles pile up.” (Kerouac 251) Dean carries on with his relationship with Inez and they end up getting married, only to leave her the next day to live with Camille in San