On the Road, pg. 92

"'We're all in this together!' yelled Ponzo. I saw that was so - everywhere I went, everybody was in it together" (92).

I thought that this quote summed up the experience that Sal has had while interacting with other people on this trip. As we discussed after reading Whittman's poem, one element of a road trip is that when you meet people on your journey, everybody is traveling on the same road - there is a sense of commonality, a shared experience. Sal has met many different types of characters on this trip, but they all have at least one thing in common: they are connected by the road they are traveling. It seems that Sal has realized that although people have different problems and different destinations, humanity shares a common struggle. It reminds me of that quote by Thoreau that says "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desparation."

Now that his plans for a job on a boat have fallen through, it seems that Sal has changed. How has the forced spontaneity of this part of his trip changed him?