"I was so interested in the opera that for a while I forgot the circumstances of my crazy life and got lost in the great mournful sounds of Beethoven and the rich Rembrandt tones of his story." (page 52)
Here Kerouac displays the therapeutic aspect of a good road trip, in allowing a traveler to experience life from a different perspective. Sal's spontaneity and poor planning have gotten him lost, spatially, in a few instances thus far. In this quote, Sal experiences the invaluable feeling of truly "[getting] lost" in thought. He manages to to fully immerse himself in the sounds of the opera, and in doing so, frees his mind from the usual worries of his "crazy life." It seems as though Kerouac values the ability of a good road trip to renew an individual mentally, as the normal "circumstances" or obstacles of everyday life do not always apply. In a sense, a good road trip can be a liberating experience, an escape from various limitations often set by society.
Sal concludes that Gene travels "because he had no place he could stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to got but everywhere..." (26). Are these the same factors that influence Sal to travel, or is his motivation unique within itself?
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