Sal's Answer to the Adventure Call

Our main character is introduced as a depressed character who doesn't enjoy life too much and is looking for change. He hasn't had much luck, having already been left by his wife and been through a bad sickness. Our main character is a bored New York writer who seems eager for adventure and a change of scenery. His luck turns around when he meets Dean Moriarty, another writer who is looked up to almost immediately by the main character and so the journey to follow Dean to the West begins.
This journey is long, tiresome, and looks very difficult, but the narrator is settled on making it there sooner or later. This journey takes the narrator into a type of personality search, but what is he after? Is he looking for an adventure he can write about, is he looking for love, or is he just in it for the thrill of following Dean and finding what it is that he can truly enjoy in life?
Through this journey, the narrator wakes up in a hotel and doesn't know who or where he is, but maybe by the end of the trip he will have a clear answer to his questions. Along the trip, with all the hitchhiking, the new people he meets such as Eddie or Montana Slim, and all the bars he goes to, the readers can tell that the narrator is finding enjoyment in an experience which most people would find very unpleasant. He has almost no money, no sure transportation, and doesn't really know anyone, but the narrator enjoys himself and does nothing but think ahead about his future fun in Denver with Dean and the rest of his friends.

Starting fresh

     On the Road so far reminds me of a novel called Travels with Charlie, written by John Steinbeck. Interestingly, both books speak about how journeys on the road drastically change the way a traveler sees the world, and how he understands himself. Steinbeck’s character also takes a road trip across America, with the company of his dog Charlie. He begins the book by emphasizing that the stories he collected were far too important not to be written down. The same sentiment is expressed in On the Road. Kerouac’s character Sal is dazzled by the spirit of the west, and admires people who will show him an adventure through their enthusiasm for life. The interesting characters he meets while on the road gradually begin to change his perspective from a man who feels terribly ill and bored at the start, to a writer with a zest for life much like his friend Dean. 

  Since he hitchhikes, he is forced to get to know new people. Some people he admires, and others are not so interesting. It is his detours and bad decisions that bring him to new places and people. For Sal, the experience is almost cathartic; it is a release from the tensions of daily life where he writes “with the energy of a benny addict” (pg. 3). 
      Surrendering himself to destiny, he truly lets the world lead him on a journey of the soul. When he wakes up in the gloomy Old Plains Inn, he suddenly does not know who he is. This frightens him at first, but he soon pulls himself together and plunges into the great unknown. Sal’s travels on the road make him a blank slate, ready to absorb the ideas of others and to change his own as well.  

It's the Journey not the Destination

So far in the first forty pages of the novel, the theme seems to be that it is not about the destination but rather about the journey. The journey is not solely as physical journey but personal one as well, as it was about finding yourself as you find new lands to cross and new people to meet.  The journey is about trying new things and getting side tracked.  Often you may find that where you end up is not the place that you originally planned on going, but someplace, even better. The narrator, Sal, starts on his journey by expecting to ride on the same road the whole way to Denver but he runs into trouble. When he figures out that his endeavor is not possible, he easily changes his plans. Flexibility and spontaneity are seen as prerequisites for capturing the spirit of adventure and the spirit of visiting the west. 

The west, at one time, in the beginning of the United States’ history, was foreign and mysterious, but brave souls ventured forth to find their future and discover  their fortune. Those people found beautiful land and new people to share their culture and whom they could fight. I think this is the spirit of the narrator’s journey. It about being brave enough to leave what you know behind and find what you’re looking for on the way, even if you did not know you were looking for it.  You may miss a lot of things when you are worried about getting somewhere to fast. If you let the journey take you, you’ll find that you end up in exactly the right place.  

Unexpected Help from Destiny

Sal, at the beginning of our story, was a depressed and bored writer from New York. However, this all changes with the entrance of his main hero, Dean Moriarty. Where did he come from? How did he become Sal's incentive to move to the West? All these questions can be answered through the general idea that Dean is, indeed, the savior of our narrator. 

At the intro, the reader is introduced to Sal with the description of his wife leaving him and his recovery from a serious illness. Such a life makes him feel depressed, tired, and stagnant. However, upon the arrival of Dean into the story, everything sparks into motion. Dean begins to push Sal into following his dream thus, making himself the motivation that Sal needs to pass through his depression; Sal has always dreamed of traveling West but, never has and Dean, the personification of that West, arrives. 

Sal, at first, hesitated at pursuing his dream but once he gains the courage from his fellow man, Dean, he beings his journey of walking and hitch hiking to the West. If we go deeper into the idea of the theme of this story, it is self-evident that destiny wants Sal to chase after his dream, to follow his heart. However, he was falling behind and might not have travelled if it was not for the little push that destiny gave Sal and the name of this push was Dean Moriarty.

The Journey of Ones Soul

          Souls will eternally wander, seeking their purpose and destiny for happiness. While making their journey, they come into contact with other souls; lost, running away, or heading towards.
      I enjoy how this book portrays journeyers as souls rather than people because the truth to who someone is, their accomplishments, goals, likes and dislikes, all rest in their soul. The body is just a facade. The raw validity of someone lies in the core of their essence and the world is basically inhabited by spiritual beings all scattering for a reason to be.            The narrator knows where he needs his soul to rest and sets his mind on his task, ignoring all distractions that present themselves. Along his path, he encounters a variety of souls such as "Mississippi Gene was a little dark guy who rode freight trains around the country... And he sat on the boards cross-legged, looking out over the fields without saying anything for hundreds of miles..." (page 127-128) and "The blond kid was also quiet and he seemed to be running away from something..." (page 128).
          Even though they are all headed towards separate goals, the beauty of the whole is that they coincide at some point or another, no matter how different the quest is. When it is believed that you have lost a soul of a friend  for good, there is some force existent that will make your paths cross once again. "Eddie jumped in and slowly rattled away from my sight, and wearing my wool plaid shirt... I kissed the shirt goodbye, it only had sentimental value in any case, besides of which, though I didn't know it, I was destined to retrieve it some ways up the road." (page 126).
          One quote in particular that I felt thoroughly makes one realize the multitude of souls living on this Earth was said to the narrator during one of his hitch-hiked rides. "'I used to hop freights at least once a month. In those days you'd see hundreds of men riding a flat car or in a box car, and they weren't just bums, they were all kinds men out of work and going from one place to another and some of them just wandering.'" (page 123) It could just be imagined, all those people and their souls packed into one train, completely obviously to the other and each only thinking of his or her own objective.