Second Reaction

After having read the third chapter of this book, I am a little bit confused. I thought this book was going to be entirely about the journey to Denver, which is almost entirely across the country, but the narrator has already made it to Nebraska. In any case, I enjoyed the third chapter. I think his interactions with Eddie, his hitch-hiking friend, told a lot about his character. In particular, when Eddie borrows one of the narrator's shirts because it is cold outside, and the narrator gets a cold because of it. Then Eddie ditches the narrator when a ride is offered to them with only room for one, taking the shirt along with him. The fact that the narrator is not upset at this shows that he's grown past material things, and is willing to adapt to his situation.
Another thing I noticed about this chapter is that to the narrator, the west is as grand as it can get. He is very interested in anything that has to do with the west, such as the man whom he characterizes as the spirit of the west. He described his laugh as the "greatest laugh", and according to the narrator, the further west he travelled, the better things got for him. The better the pie, the better the ice cream, and so on.