The Neverending Search

““There ain’t no flowers there,” she said. “I want to go to New York. I’m sick and tired of this. Ain’t no place to go but Cheyenne and ain’t nothing in Cheyenne.”
“Ain’t nothin in New York.”
“Hell there ain’t,” she said with a curl of her lips.” (p.35)


After reading about the characters’ wild adventures in Cheyenne, the reader discovers that it may not be just Sal who is resorting to the road in search of happiness and “life”. Here, the pretty young blonde that he meets also seems to desire change and excitement, anything, but the life that she is currently living. Ironically, she is set on the idea that heading east is the key. From experience Sal knows that the east does not hold the answer, and that “it” is truly in the west. At this point another concept of Kerouac’s “road trip” emerges as we learn that the journey across America is in search of “it”, where “it” (as far as I can understand) is that which will subside their hunger. Correspondingly, after Sal finally reaches Denver (the destination which he had been itching for for so long), uses and abuses it, and gains nothing, he suddenly feels the urge to hurry on to San Francisco. Perhaps there he will find his answer. It seems as though Sal has a void in his life which he is trying to fill through a materialistic lifestyle (e.g., alcohol, sex, and drugs). I, however, do not believe happiness can be achieved through such a worldly lifestyle. Do you?