chapter 1
Sal has alot of intellectual friends who are mostly negative. His friend Dean is possibly the only positive intellectual friend he has. Dean Moriarty is a character. He is a crazy youth that runs from the law. He is a scoundrel and a player. He likes to talk smart, he uses big words and grammer even though he might not know what he's talking about, and he seems like a smart alec.
This quote sums up Sal and Dean's relationship: "He was only conning because he wanted so much to live and to get involved with people who would othewise pay no attention to him. He was conning me and i knew it... and he knew i knew (this has been the basis of our relationship)..."
Carlo Marx is an artsy type of character, and he is one of the negative intellectuals mentioned before. When Carlo and Dean met they instantly clicked.
"Two keen minds they are, they took to each other at the drop of a hat. Two piercing eyes glance into two piercing eyes - the hoyl con-man with the shining mind, and the sorrowful poetic con-man with the dark mind that is Carlo Marx."
Chapter 2
I think this whole chapter is foreshadowing to Sal's failure and then success. At first he ends up in a bad situation in the rain and then he hitch-hikes with two women.
Chapter 3
what is bop at the Loop?
"I thought of all my friends from one end of the country to the other and how they were really all in the same vast backyard doing something so frantic and rushing-about."
This quote made me think of our country on a smaller scale, as a piece of land that were all on doing something different but that helps all of us and that other countries are the same as well.
At this point i can see the list type qualities in the writing.
All of Sal's friends are in Denver, it's like a gang.
Sal talks of the East as his past and the West as a symbol of his future. at one point it is said the "old man spirit of the west."
Sal and the other hitch-hiker were offered jobs to work at a carnival and they didn't take it. i thought of Grapes of Wrath and figured that the Joads would have taken the job.
Chapter 4
Let me just say that Montana Slim seems like a maniac.
I think that the truck that took Sal and the other hitch-hikers is a symbol for somthing. What could it be?
Why is Sal so fascinated with Gene and the blone boy? He is so nice to them and buys them cigarettes and they don't even ask.
Chapter 5
Montana Slim used Sal for alcohol. He has a sentimental side for his father.
Could he be a symbol? will he return?
I predict that Denver will not be as great as Sal thinks.
Chapter 6
I think Sal is an alcoholic and things aren't as good as he expected in Denver just like my prediction.
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You picked up on some of the same things as me and I am sure you see that reflected in the quiz you had to take. We even noticed some of the same quotes. Good! I like the connections you are making to Grapes of Wrath... it will be interesting to see where it goes because they are both traveling to California and refer to it at times as the "promised" land. I like how you are looking for symbolic meanings in the text. I also think Sal is an alcoholic, here the fictional character is much like the author himself. We will be learning more about "bop" -it is a reference to jazz music and be-bop, which is a musical style similar to the author's writing. One influenced the other here. Nice blog!
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