Will Sal Ever Change?

After all the lives he has experimented with, Sal finally seems to be exhausted at the end of Part 1. He has gathered a multitude of experiences, but he does not yet know what to make of them. He returns to his aunt's house seemingly even more lost than he was when he left. His experiences seem to parallel his aunt's great "rag rug", woven from the clothes that have been in his family for years. Sal has traveled to strange and interesting places; he has met new and mad people. However, these memories are scattered in his mind like the great rag rug; pieced together but with no conceivable meaning.
Sal describes the great rag rug as "rich as the passage of time itself". At the end of his trip on the road, Sal seems to have both grown and stayed the same all at once. He gets a taste of what a life of responsibility entails through his time with Terry, but he also learns to shirk his duties with the Mexican men who always say "manana". He seems to understand the power of love, but then has no problem leaving Terry and necking with another girl on the road. Sal is a man of contradictions; perhaps because he himself does not know who he is.
When he returns home the first thing he regrets is missing Dean again. Clearly, Sal still has his same old obsession for Dean. I find it frustrating to follow the story of a man who seems incapable of growth.