of all jack kerouac's works, doctor sax may just be the strangest as well as the most open to interpretation. on the third page, he writes that 'memory & dream are intermixed in this mad universe.' while living with william burroughs in '52 he conjures up a childhood world that is exactly that - mad. essentially, the story is a fantasy about an alchemist named doctor sax who is trying to make a potion to destroy the evil 'great world snake' that resides in the town, interspersed with childhood memories of kerouac's. the result of this mad story is a completely raw book displaying the mind of kerouac unabridged - with enough dream-symbolism & archetypal retrospection to make jung giddy with excitement.

to find the themes of spirituality & alcohol, one doesnt have to don the psychoanalyst mask for too long - in fact the theme starts in the title. the subtitle of 'faust part three' is striking & sets the book's allegorical tone. the character of doctor sax is most likely supposed to be kerouac's faust, & as faust was on an endless quest for knowledge, sax is too in his attempts at making the potion. here the ending of 'sax' becomes extremely important: that he fails just as faust failed in rescuing gretchen, with heavenly forces having to kill the snakem instead (just as heavenly forces say they going to save gretchen in goethe's faust).

this ending, purposefully similar to the wizard of oz, as well, highlights the mortal shortcomings of dr sax, who even with all of his knowledge, experience, & bravery cannot overcome his adversary & complete his task. he needs divine help.while watching the be destroyed by the heavenly bird on the last page, sax says in awe of the divine 'ill be damned, the universe disposes of its own evil!" kerouac, thus ends the second book in his duluoz legend with an ode to forces beyond his control & once again, as in 'gerard,' sets himself below something. the statement even has a zen-like tone to it, with the natural universe (& not a named deity) acting on its own, & in a divine-like fahion. as zen buddhism & catholicism are the central entities in kerouac's spirituality, this is important. i tend to think of kerouac's attainment of truth thru the delevopment of this spirituality as his equivalent of faust's saving of gretchen & sax's defeat of the snake, & if this is so he certainly isnt hopeful about attaining truth on his own. perhaps it is a plea for divine help for he cannot do it on his own - he is only human.

does his eventual heavy use of alcohol help in his pursuit of this attainment to truth? or is it just a mark of error as part of kerouac's humanity?