Sal's Developing Humility

This part of the book was a very fast read for me because I was excited to see how Sal and Terry’s relationship would develop. At first I thought Terry would be just another one night stand for Sal because that’s all that every other girl has been to him. I thought he just wanted her for company that night, but I enjoyed seeing how they developed to truly care about one another and how they stayed together and even made plans to go to New York together instead. I also like how Sal is becoming a humble character as opposed to before when all he would think about partying, drinking, and women. His demonstration of humility is visible when he realizes he has to take care of Terry now and her son; he is finally assuming the role of the responsible one in the group. He shows his eagerness to care for “his girl” when he gets the tough and barely profiting job of cotton picker, in which he is ecstatic to make some money and even feels bad that Terry and her son are helping him and even doing more work than him. I think his motivation for taking initiative to work is Rickey and Ponzo because they always procrastinate and leave everything for later and don’t seem to be able to do anything but drink and get kicked out by Big Rosey. The fact that Sal doesn't even understand what “manana” means but thinks it means heaven serves to me as a foreshadow that Sal is going to find what he is looking for soon in the future, and maybe not tomorrow per say, but maybe once he gets back to New York he will have something awaiting him that will finally make him happy for life.