Elaine Showalter’s explanation of the female critique is that it probes the world of male produced literature and discusses “the images and stereotypes of women in literature, the omissions and misconceptions about women in criticism, and the fissures in male constructed literary history.” The novel by Jack Kerouac, On the Road is a book that expresses the freedom and the lives of the Beat generation. However, it seems that the freedom applies only to the male characters of the novel, Sal and Dean. The women in the book are mostly background characters that float in and out of their lives and do not enjoy the same liberties. Though there are many girls mentioned in the book, they are always mentioned with their respective boyfriends or husbands, and they all seem to have the same docile demeanor. Dean has three wives, all of them subservient to him and allowing Dean to act in any manner and say whatever he wants to them. His three wives are always willing to come back to him or welcome him back with open arms, no matter what he did to them in the past, how many times he abandoned them, and who he has slept with or married. Dean runs all over the country with his friend Sal, without a care in the world, while his wives are stuck with the children that he helped to create and feels no responsibility for. In addition, most of the women belonging to the Beat generation were not known for the works they contributed to the movement, but instead on whom they were married or tied to.