Since the authoritative history on literature, The Columbia History of American Novel labels the Beats as "existential heroes", remarks that their "life on the existential edge approached the degree of authenticity” and describes the whole journey of On The Road as "transcendence."（1994）, criticism begins to turn some attention in the protagonists' quest for their existential essence. As Sartre says, the "existential heroes" not only put forward the problems and plights confronting humanity, but also attempt to find active orientations and approaches to the issue of being so as to lead the modern men out of the chaos and achieve a hopeful and meaningful existence. In On The Road, the narrator Sal Paradise and his Beat fellows, as "existential heroes," escape from absurdity and search for authentic existence on the road.