Four Possible Themes (Ari Garvett)

1. The Road is Our Drug- No matter if they go east to west or back form west to east, Sal and Dean always end up on the Pacific or Atlantic coasts and are forced to deal with their problems. The middle section of America grants them the temporary ability to distance themselves from real life and the burdens that come with it. The road, therefore provides temporary relief similar to a drug. It is a fantasy world that sooner or later shocks Sal & Dean into reality.

2. Heroes- we put our heroes on a pedestal that we think is unachievable, but as soon as we meet them, we can see their flaws as they too are solely human. Sal for almost the entire novel admired and wishes he was Dean. Every action he took, no matter how large, was to further himself into his goal of becoming another Dean; however, once observing Dean’s psychotic break Sal realized his superiority to him. His hero in actuality was a monster hidden in the shadows by his own mind as we as human beings hate to be disappointed and would rather see the color red even if it is actually blue.

3. Lemon Squeezers- I define lemon squeezers to be people who metaphorically squeeze everything useful they can out of someone, and then dumps them in the trash. The novel is full of squeezers and most definitely Dean is one of them. His ‘honorable’ quest has turned into one characterized by manipulation, desperation, and lust. He continues to leave Sal, his ‘best friend’, for weeks at a time for someone else, and then returns once he is contempt that he has finished his business. Furthermore, he manipulates Marylou through his profession of his love to her to continue to journey on with him, but in the meantime, truly could care less about any one them. He desires the company of Marylou and Sal, but once he has found something better, leaves them for good. To tie this together, this essay would describe what I now believe to be the selfish natures of human beings. We all want to get ahead in life as we are the most important people on the planet, and in this process, we do not care who we have to squeeze.

4. A successful book even though nothing ever happened - as a result of the lack of action, the novel was able to come to a close. As Sal started to see the true colors of Dean he was able to realize that Dean had not changed him in the least bit but rather he had all the characteristics to become the successful, light hearted person he always wanted to become. Sal never needed anything to happen in his life to make him any better or worse. By the end of the novel, he no longer depended on the road to define who he was, but rather allowed his mind and attitude to make the key decisions that would define his future. A future without drugs and alcohol but rather a future about love and absolute happiness.