Big Sur Characters

Real Name: Jack Kerouac (photo)What Happened to Jack?Before you start any analysis or discussion of Big Sur, check out Kerouac's author's note at the start of the text. You can also see what Shmoop...

Real Name:: Neal Cassady (photo)Cody is the alter-ego of Neal Cassady, a good friend of Kerouac who is featured in many of his works. Neal was immortalized forever as the famous Dean Moriarty in On...

Real Name: Lew Welch (photo)Dave Wain is the alter-ego of Beat poet, Lew Welch, a friend of Kerouac and many of the other Beats. Think of his character in Big Sur as a stand-in of Neal Cassady's al...

Real Name: Robert LaVigne"The beatnik painter." Browning gets a mention at the beginning of the novel, having gone out drinking with Jack and Ben the night before.

Real Name: Lucien CarrJack's friend back in New York. He doesn't make any appearances in the novel, though Jack sends him a letter at one point ("addressed to Coaly Rustnut from Runty Onenut"). It'...

Real Name: Sandy JacobsAn odd character; this "young kid from Oregon" used to be a famous athlete and has now decided "to become some sort of beat Jesus." Jack comes to realize that Joey Rosenberg...

Real Name: Tom FieldA painter who lives in the mad rooming house with Dave Wain, Ron Blake, and several others.

"A mad French Canadian drinker" who lives in the bustling San Francisco boarding house with Dave Wain and the others. He's "a sweet kid but crazy when he drinks," which is just about all he's seen...

A black man who lives in the crazy boarding house with Dave Wain and the others.

"A big tough Yugoslav kid who ran the Seven Arts Gallery in New York with big bearded beatnik readings but now comes the circus and a whole big on-the-road of his own." He goes with Jack and Dave t...

Stanley's "Italian beauty girl."

"The greatest driver in the world." He's a kid that Jack goes out with one night so that he [Bruce] can prove what a great driver he is. Supposedly, he used to handle the get-away car. Jack is beyo...

Real Name: Jami or Cathy CassadyOne of Cody and Evelyn's daughters.

Real Name: Jami or Cathy CassadyOne of Cody and Evelyn's daughters.

Real Name: John Allen CassadyCody and Evelyn's son.

Real Name: Eric GibsonBillie's four-year-old son.