Read the excerpt from On the Road.
In those days he really didn't know what he was talking about; that is to say, he was a young jailkid all hung-
up on the wonderful possibilities of becoming a real intellectual, and he liked to talk in the tone and using the
words, but in a jumbled way, that he had heard from "real intellectuals"-although, mind you, he wasn't so
naïve as that in all other things, and it took him just a few months with Carlo Marx to become completely in
there with all the terms and jargon.
Which is a key feature of Kerouac's diction that contributes to his writing style?
the use of youth culture slang
o the use of academic language
the use of words from other languages
the use of regional dialects