On the Road Blog 2

In chapters 3 , Sal finally makes it to Chicago. He says he really likes Chicago and I found his descriptions of Chicago in 1947 , right down to the fads (such as bop) that took over america at the time , to be very vivid. So far, I like on the road because it presents you with an ordinary writer that takes off from home and undertakes extraordinary adventures on the road. What makes Sal's plight remarkable is the unique people he encounters on the way and the completely different perspective he gets from being a traveler. In chapter 3, he describes waking up in a cheap motel in Des Moines and completely forgetting who he was for 15 seconds , he describes being at a crossroads in his life and ties it in with also being at a dividing point in the Midwest. I found his description of that strange sensation to be truly remarkable because it really captures the essence of a travelling young writer who is literally at a crossroads in his life. I also like the way Kerouac captures the lonesomeness of hitchhiking. When he encounters Eddie , he claims that he would ordinarily bore him , but his senses were "sharp for any kind of human friendship". Descriptions like these are what really stand out to me in the book as we've all felt like Sal at some point in our life and it's even more interesting to see the lonesome aspect of being on the road.