Moving Towards the West (again.....)

Ch. 1-4 Part 4

These chapters were way more interesting than the past group of chapters that I have read. I think for the first time we see Sal resisting the company of Dean. When Sal leaves his Aunt's appartment to head towards the west (again...ugh) and leaves Dean there, He seems a bit unhappy that he will no longer be with Dean anymore. Dean also seems pretty affected by this. Sal even tells Dean "All I hope, Dean, is someday we'll be able to live on the same street with our families and get to be a couple of oldtimers together"(253). And at the end of this chapter he also says that now that Dean will no longer be accompanying him that he has a long way to go. But when he reaches Denver Colorado, he gets the news from Tim Gray's friend that Dean bought a car and is heading out west with him, he seems to have a really negative reaction to this. Almost as if he feels that now Dean has just become a burden. He goes into detail and seems to be having these wild predictions about what would happen if Dean followed him out here. He describes Dean as pursuing him "like the Shrouded Traveler on the plain, bearing down on me"(259). This really shows that Sal is getting tired of Dean. I think now he just wants to take care of his own problems and not have to deal with Dean's as well. He feels that Dean will cause great destruction and describes what he envisions, "I saw his old jalopy chariot with thousands of sparking flames shooting out from it; I saw the path it burned over the road; it even made its own road and went over the corn, through cities, destroying bridges, drying rivers"(259). Sal seems to not be taking this news too well at all.

Altho once he joins with Dean again he realizes that he has a connection with him. He continues to travel to Mexico along with Stan and Dean and I noticed that all of these people seem to be running away from their families (or seem to be lacking family contact). Dean's father has spent a long time in prison and Stan is trying to avoid his control freak grandfather. So they all have family troubles. Sal also says something interesting when he says "I was having a wonderful time and the whole world opened up before me because I had no dreams"(258). It seems that at this point he kind of realizes that whatever he is trying to attain, it is impossible. He starts feeling better about himself when he realizes that he has no dreams and no specific goals that he is trying to reach. I think he should have gained that type of mindset in the first place (i guess kind of like Dean who seems to just go where life takes him and just tries to have a good time.....but then Sal would become too mentally unstable like Dean...). Sal also seems to have this fascination with anything outside the "white" american culture. Saying that everything changes when they reach the Mexican border. He always seems interested in ethnic groups and culture in society and feels like they live better lives than he does. Its very interesting. Also his writing does not seem like one big long rant, maybe it is because the chapters are getting more interesting.