Ch7&8 plus more

            This is supposed to be a reaction to chapters 7-8, but I am going to talk about pages 150-200.  This story I snow starting to get old.  What started out as a fun adventure to get away from a boring family life in New York has turned into a complete mess of an adventure.  Sal is continuing his road journey with Dean and Marylou.  Marylou’s relationship with Dean and Sal is very strange.  She and Dean love each other, but have trouble staying together.  In order to get back at Dean, she pretends to love Sal.  Sal always gets the short end of the stick, and never has anyone to spend real time with.  Dean continues down his path of craziness, while Marylou grows more distant towards Sal.  My hope for Sal was for him to find inspiration for his novels, and potentially find someone he could marry.  Neither of these two things has happened.  Sal continues to travel back and forth between the central and western United States, all the while becoming more lost in his own thoughts and losing his identity.  I think he resonates well with Dean because like Sal, Dean hasn’t the slightest clue who he is as a person.  Dean is so mixed up on the inside.  Another thing that annoys me is the buildup of relationships that have an abrupt ending.  Marylou and Sal are foreshadowed to have a relationship in San Francisco, yet when they get there they spend only two days together.  She disappears with some night club owner never to be seen again.  Meanwhile Dean starts a family with another woman, but he can’t get his priorities straight and leaves.  Dean says he loves Marylou, but he doesn’t attempt to really get that relationship started again.  This book constantly throws life goals at you that never seem to be fulfilled by the characters.  If anything, I want to see Sal be happy when he isn’t with Dean.  Dean is his only source of joy, and that isn’t right.  He can’t keep travelling around the country forever.  Money eventually runs out, and their trip to Italy won’t be able to be financed.