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.