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.
I like Mona’s idea, while we all have our own separate goals, our paths can intertwine. Paths meet then veer off in different directions, perhaps never meeting again. Although we all have our own plans, we can found common ground and help each other. The whole concept of hitchhiking is similar to this idea of intertwining paths. If you happen to be driving in the same direction as someone else then why not lend them a ride? They provide company and eventually the two of you will go your own ways. You can find new friends wherever you travel in this manner. I think this represents the shortness of life. Our lives move to quick, and it seems like we are merely passing through. Sal spent a day or two with Eddie, as Mona mentioned, as traveling companions even though they hardly knew each other prior. They shared stories and good times, and when Eddie found opportunity, he left without even saying goodbye. It is the nature of things on the road that they move quickly and then are gone. I, similar to Mona, also enjoyed that Kerouac used the term ‘soul’. Soul stands for more then the person but a combination of a person’s moral values, experiences, and achievements, all of which are important and what people are remembered for in the end. As Mona said, “The raw validity of someone lies in the core of their essence.”
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