Sal, Who Has He Become?

Sal’s character continuously perplexes me. At first Sal seemed to be a man without any personality worth noting. All of his friends had enough personality for themselves and Sal, but as his travels continued he started to gain certain traits from his friends. All the traits seemed to be those which one would not like to acquire, such as recklessness, spontaneity, and irresponsibility. The first example of Sal’s newly acquired personality is his inability to keep a job. Sal’s first job, which Dean gets him, he does not even show up for. He drinks beer and sleeps in late and completely misses the first day, even though he desperately needs the money for food, travel, and to repay his aunt. Sal’s second job is as a cop. He ends up stealing food from the cafeteria, which is ironic because this sort of behavior is exactly what he is trying to prevent. He gets drunk on the job with a bunch of rowdy workers, and accidently hangs the American flag upside down, which he later finds out he could have been arrested for. Sal’s second flaw was his attraction to trouble making friends. Sal befriends the type of people who condone stealing, drinking, and cheating. They all talk crazy nonsense and they are all easy amused and irritated. A prime example is Remi. Remi teaches Sal that the world owes them something and if they don’t get it then they should take it. This is the reason Sal begins to frequently steal. Sal is always complaining about getting in trouble but if he really wished to stay out of it then he should probably have chosen a better group of friends.