"It was just the loneliness of San Francisco and the fact that I had a gun. I had to show it to someone. I walked by a jewelry store and had the sudden impulse to shoot up the window, take out the finest rings and bracelets, and run to give them to Lee Ann. Then we could flee to Nevada together. The time was coming for me to leave Frisco or I'd go crazy." (pg. 73)
These lines in the first part of the book describes Sal's journey thus far. Sal continues his travels in order to survive. Saying that it is time for him to leave San Francisco shows that constant movement is a survival tactic that Sal uses in order to not feel dissatisfied with these lifestyles that he is thrown into. His dissatisfaction and restlessness appears to come from his failures in seducing women and the failing relationships in San Francisco.
In class, we discussed the importance of being spontaneous and the role it plays in Sal's journey. The characters and tales we discover along the way are a result of his desire to find a more fulfilling addition to his story. Sal is a person who wants his journey to be about movement and novelty.
My question is why does Sal find that the West is empty while the East is "brown and holy"? This journey was for him to find new stories but it appears that the more he travels the more he becomes frustrated with his decisions. So why is he appearing to dislike his decisions?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree. Similar evidence is shown when he says, "I didn't know what to say; he was right; but all I wanted to do was sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere, and go and find out what everybody was doing all over the country." (pg 67)
ReplyDeleteSal is trying to experience life on the road, having no concrete plan and merely taking part in various snippets of other people's lives. Therefore he cannot stay in one place for too long due impatience, frustration, and dissatisfaction. He has to keep moving in order to be productive and find inspiration for the book he is writing back home--although we do not know what he is writing about.
As for your question, I don't think he finds the West empty so much as it was simply his mission to travel and experience life away from home and he was never planning on permanently moving away. He says "Here I was at the end of America--no more land--and now there was nowhere to go but back. I determined at least to make my trip a circular one: I decided then and there to go to Hollywood and back through Texas to see my bayou gang; then the rest be damned." (pg 78) Reaching the Pacific Coast and accepting that he has ruined his relationship with Remi, he now must scratch his plan to take up work on a sea vessel and start his adventure back home.