On the Road

The next day, the group learns more about Bull’s strange habits, as he sets up weird, somewhat violent but also banal experiences in his backyard. For example, they pull nails from a rotting piece of wood and practice throwing knives in his backyard. Also, they listen to Bull talk about Tangiers, and they fight with his neighbors. Afterward, they go to a racetrack, where Bull loses all his bets. Back at Bull’s house, they compete at athletic activities, and Dean emerges as the fastest member of the group. In New Orleans, Dean shows off his skills as a brakeman as the men practice hopping on and off freight trains. They then go their separate ways. Ed and Galatea stay in New Orleans, while Dean, Sal, and Marylou decide to travel to California. 

As Sal, Dean, and Marylou travel through Louisiana and then Texas, they must steal to survive. They steal food, gas, and cigarettes whenever possible. One night, they spot a huge fire in the distance and drive without the car’s headlights. As Sal drives, an oncoming car forces them onto the side of the road. The car stops, and its occupants are drunken farm workers who want directions. Sal tells them where to go before he realizes that his car is stuck. He and Dean must push the car out of the mud and then drive on through the night in their filthy car. The next day, they drive through snowy landscapes. At one point, Dean stops the car and runs naked through the undergrowth. On Dean’s insistence, Sal and Marylou also get naked, and they get back into the car. Their naked bodies shock the truckdrivers they pass.

That evening, they stop at a travel bureau in El Paso, Texas. They want to pick up people who can help them pay for gas—but find no one. Sal notices the way Marylou looks at Dean, a look mixed with anger, love, and sadness. They manage to pick up a hitchhiker who says that his aunt in California can give them gas money. As they drive through the mountains in New Mexico, Sal decides to stop the car and pawn his watch. The police again stop them. This time, however, Dean’s antics amuse the officer, and he allows them to continue on their journey. They make a stop in Tucson, where Sal knows a man named Hingham. They borrow $5 from him and resume their journey. 

They stop again to pick up another hitchhiker. This man is a musician whose guitar was stolen. However, he promises them that his brother in Bakersfield can give them gas money if they give him a ride. The car passes a women’s prison, and the musician tells a story about a woman who shot her husband. The husband forgave his wife and paid her bail, and then she shot him again. On the way down a mountain, Dean puts the car in neutral to save gas. He carefully tells the passengers which way to lean as they descend 30 miles without using any fuel.

The group arrives in Bakersfield, where Dean’s memories suddenly overcome him. He tells Sal about his youth in the various notorious spots around town. When Sal tries to tell his own story about Terry, Dean is too excited and barely listens. The musician’s brother gives them a few dollars and they drive on to find the house belonging to the hitchhiker’s aunt. When they arrive, however, they find out that the boy’s aunt was sent to prison because she shot her husband. Bidding farewell to the hitchhiker and wishing him the best, they travel on through the hills around San Francisco and along the ocean on the coast. Once they arrive in the city, Dean ditches Sal and Marylou and runs off to find Camille. 

Sal and Marylou get a room in a cheap hotel. Although Sal has sensed a burgeoning relationship with her, he discovers that she was just trying to make Dean jealous and has no interest in Sal. On the second night of their stay, she wanders off with a rich man. Sal wanders the city streets on his own. In one odd moment, he mistakes a female store owner for his mother criticizing his lifestyle. Sal is emotionally overwhelmed and staggers back to his room, struggling to cope with the mixture of immense bliss and the sudden realization of his own mortality. Back in his room, he is ravenously hungry. He thinks about all the different odors of food in the city. 

Dean returns and leads Sal to meet Camille. They stay with her for a few days. Dean decides to sell pressure cookers, but his scheme doesn’t last long. Instead, Sal and Dean go to see a famous jazz musician named Slim Gaillard play a concert. As Sal gets ready to return east to New York, Dean reunites with Marylou. Sal doesn’t want to spend any more time with the couple, so they go their separate ways. As they part, a slight but palpable hostility passes between them.