Thesis Paper Post 3

Both Sal and Dean set off on the epic journeys searching for the same thing, the true meaning of happiness, but unfortunately with every step Sal and Dean take they are met with disappointment. When Sal finally makes it to Colorado and the group has already begun to fall apart and his idol, Dean Moriarty, rarely notices or speaks to Sal. As Sal is leaving Colorado, on his way to San Francisco, he remarks that “In a last minute phone call Dean said he and Carlo might join me on the cost; I pondered this, and realized I hadn’t talked to Dean for more than five minutes on the whole time” (I.10.12).

Sal’s expectations are, quickly and in an anticlimactic fizzle, not met, which eventually takes a severe toll on Sal’s initial optimism and excitement. As Sal reaches the end of his first journey across the continental U.S. he realizes “How disastrous all this was compared to what I’d written him from Paterson, planning my red line Route 6 across America. Here I was at the end of America - no more land - and now there was nowhere to go but back. I determined at least to make my trip a circular one: I decided then and there to go to Hollywood and back through Texas to see my bayou gang; then the rest be damned.” (I.11.96). Sal is disappointed by the fact that he has reached the end, with no more land to head west on, and has not found what he is looking for. But, as with Dean, Sal believes that as long as they are on the road there is a chance of them finding what they are looking for.

Through the deration of the entire novel there is always something frustratingly missing from Sal’s descriptions of the people around him and of his life in general, as if he can not get an accurate understanding it. He travels through all of the United States hoping to find someone who can help him understand it, which is another reason why Sal is drawn to Dean. After coming back from the West Coast for the first time Sal is stranded in New York City is left with no other option than walking through the Lincoln Tunnel to get back to New Jersey. During his journey Sal remarks, “Can you picture me walking those last miles through the Lincoln Tunnel or over the Washington Bridge and into New Jersey? It was dusk. Where was Hassel? I dug the square for Hassel; he wasn’t there, he was in Riker’s Island, behind bars. Where Dean? Where everybody? Where life? I had my home to go to, my place to lay my head down and figure the losses and figure the gain that I knew was in there somewhere too” (I.14.9).

Sal starts to realize how everyone around him feels as he does, that his perspective is not as unique as he had believe. During his journey back to New York he claims, “The bus roared on. I was going home in October. Everybody goes home in October.” (I.14.1).