Chapter four begins with “the greatest ride of [Sal’s] life,”
and so the rest of the chapter is a description of this ride. I really liked
the way the Kerouac described this part of Sal’s trip because it was very
realistic. I could see myself doing some of the things they were doing, in the
sense that it was guys just being guys on a road trip. For example, when Slim
goes to pee off the side of the truck and the Minnesota guys start swerving
just to mess with him. This made me feel almost as if I was there with them,
laughing at Slim peeing on himself, and as if I was friends with the whole
group of men that were riding along on the truck.
Chapter five then begins on what to me seemed to be like a
carnival of a sort with people bustling along on the street in a large crowd. One
encounter Sal had that I found particularly interesting was the girl who
mentions being sick and tired of the west and wanting to go to New York because
there is nothing in the west. Sal then replies that there is not anything in
New York. This “grass is greener on the other side” case struck me as perhaps
being foreboding of the fact that once Sal reaches Denver he won’t find what he
was expecting or looking for, and that he may want to return to New York.
Finally, in chapter six, I found that my prediction had some
truth behind it. Once Sal reaches Denver, he is informed of the fact that his
group of friends is split up. I am curious to see how this will affect Sal’s
actions in the future, and whether or not he will somehow end up back in New
York.
Juan Pino
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