Ciara's Response to Chp. 13-14

Sal starts off the chapter by stating that he's decided to hitchhike to New York with Terry, which immediately pissed me off.  The whole point of Sal going on the road in the first place was to leave New York behind, along with all his responsibilities.  Now, he is heading back to the place he spent so long running away from, all for a girl who never even ends up traveling back with him in the first place.  At the end of Chapter 14, Sal ends up right where he started in the beginning of the novel, with no money, no girl, and most importantly, no life. The situation reminds me of the well-known advice parents give their children before they go to college: never choose where you're going to go based on where your girlfriend/boyfriend iss going, just in case things don't work out.  Sal is so blinded by his love for Terry that he agrees to go back to New York even though he spent all his time and money trying to leave there.  

I am not so convinced about Sal's love for Terry.  I am not sure if they actually love each other, or if they just like the idea of loving someone.  They're in love with the idea of havign someone to sleep with every night, and someone to call "baby", but I never got the feeling that they were actually in love with the idea of each other.'

Throughout these chapters, I felt like Sal reversed right back to where he was at the beginning of the novel.  His purpose for leaving New York was to leave his wife and the rest of his responsibilities behind, but he ends up having to take on a job as a cotton-picker (and a miserly one at that) to support his new girl Terry and their son.  He has to worry about making money to buy food to prevent his new family form starving, and to pay the rent so they have a roof over their head.  All of a sudden, all this stress comes pouring into his life; stress that evokes emotions in him I haven't seen since the early chapters of the book.  Most noticeably of all, Sal ends up back east in New York after spending a third of the book trying to get as far West as possible.  I do not see Sal being content here for long, and I suspect he will be up and on the road again soon enough.