In my opinion, this week’s reading of On the Road was the most entertaining thus far. The first subject I would like to address concerns the idea that Sal is wasting his money on going to bars and on other unnecessary things and he later wishes that he would get to Denver already. I do not understand why Sal constantly desires to get to the west so fast if he blows off most of his money that could help with his journey. Moreover, another major idea presented in these chapters is the idea that Sal has become fascinated with the women along his journey. Everywhere he goes, Sal marvels at the looks of the women and the descriptions tell the audience that Sal is desperate for a companion. Later on, he says, “I was the only guy without a girl” (p. 37). Here, the reader can foreshadow that one of Sal’s goals during his time “on the road” will be to find a woman. Once he is reunited with Dean, whom is currently sleeping with two women at the same time, Dean claims that he will find Sal a girl. My favorite part of the reading was the interactions between Dean and other characters. Dean’s personality is one that is captivating for the wrong reasons. Dean’s entire reputation revolves around all of his immoral stunts and chauvinistic attitude. However, he still comes off as a sort of admirable character. Looking forward to next week’s reading, I strongly anticipate the introduction of the waitress’ character and how it will affect Sal’s thoughts.
Although I agree with everything that Pedro presented this week, I feel his critique on chapters 5-7 are a bit ‘superficial’. He describes more of the actions that Sal commits rather than trying to understand the reasoning behind his actions. Dean spends all his money because he wants to become more like Dean and live in the moment rather than be an ‘eastern’ worrier and focus on the future. Furthermore, Dean is the ‘bad boy’ of the novel because, as I stated in my own blog, he tries to assimilate in any setting for too long as he was abused. Dean cannot risk forming a true relationship with any human beings hence his relationships with multiple woman at the same time and his constant movement from one place to another.
ReplyDeleteEven though I do not disagree with Pedro, I feel as if there is more depth to the novel than he is describing. I wish he would have written and described an in depth understanding of the psychologies of Dean and Sal rather than solely describing their actions and why they are interesting.