Misery on the Road and Selfishness

When I first started reading this book I thought that his adventure could be comparable to Chris McCandless'. However it does not seem like Sal is trying to cut himself off from society, it seems more like he is looking to find the perfect life, he wants to be able to find a wife who wants to spend time with him and be able to stay in one location with a steady job and homelife. This is unlike Chris because Chris thought that human company was not entirely necessary for happiness. Sal seems almost too dependent on human contact, this is apparent because the most descriptive parts of this book are the interactions between him and people he meets and is friends with. I also noticed within the assigned chapters, that there was some more selfishness that was noticeable. Ed marries Galatea in hopes that she will be able to supply money while they are on the road, but when he decides that the relationship is not working out, he leaves her at a motel in Tucson. She then tries to contact him and know about his whereabouts but he shows no interest. Sal still seems like he is using people in order to advance his journey. He meets a girl on the bus who he made out with and took food from on his ride to Indiannapolis. Sal never mentions the name of this girl, but he describes her and says "She bought my meals; my sandwiches were all gone. In exchange i told her long stories."(104) It seemed to me that he was just using this girl as a way to survive and gain food for his journey back to New York. I also think that he used her as a bit of a distraction from the "miserable" life which he felt he was living. I noticed that he complained from time to time about the situation he had been living in and even begins to lose who he is. He says "you know you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind, and naked, and with the visage of a gruesome grieving ghost you go shuddering through nightmare life. I stumbled haggardly out of the station; I had no more control."(106) Here he really emphasizes on how unhappy he is. He also goes on to ask himself "Where Dean? Where everybody? Where life? I had my home to go to, my place to lay my head down and figure the losses and figure the gain that i knew was in there somewhere too."(107). Not only are the questions posed weirdly with missing words/punctuation which further emphasizes that Sal seems to be losing it a bit, but the reader also gains a sense that through this constant moving around Sal is starting to forget how normal life was and is starting to become disoriented. He is moving around too often.