Which real people inspired Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty in On the Road?

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In the novel On the Road, the characters are largely based on real people from the life of author Jack Kerouac:

  • Sal Paradise: This protagonist is based on Jack Kerouac himself.1
  • Dean Moriarty: This character is based on the fellow Beat poet and adventurer Neal Cassady.12

While readers often conflated Kerouac with his narrator, Sal Paradise, the novel serves as a loosely autobiographical account of the travels and experiences Kerouac shared with Cassady.132