re dashed due to unforgiving reality. When Sal sees Dean in Denver after a few months away from him, Dean has become a walking example of sadness and the toll that life takes. Sal’s physical description of Dean in his San Francisco apartment serves to exemplify this fact:He was wearing a T-shirt, torn pants hanging down his belly, tattered shoes, he had not shaved. . . his eyes bloodshot, and a tremendous bandaged thumb stood supported in midair (Kerouac, 177).Dean’s life at this stage, affected by his wild actions, had become much like his appearance – with more than one lover to support, a infected thumb, very little money, and not much to live for, Dean is on an ominous path to nowhere. In line with the path of the novel as a truly sad work, Dean’s life has become pitiable and horribly real. Dean, as a character, goes through the cycle of heated optimism to a wild time of excitement and then to an example of a disparaging 1940’s western hero.This cycle is matched by events of the novel to also follow this cycle of, as Warren French writes "movements …from beginnings full of happy anticipations, through periods of frenzied excitement to depressing conclusions" (French, 43). Just as Hunt suggests Dean’s foolishness in pursuing actions that push him towards this "depressing conclusion," Sal’s travels seem to have a similar foolish tendency. From the very beginning of Sal’s first trip West, there is a precedent set that Sal’s will consistently look for the best in all situations, but that these visions will ultimately fail. Without any road knowledge or real traveling experience Sal notes, "I’ll just stay on (Route) 6 all the way to Ely, I said to myself and confidently started" (Kerouac, 9, emphasis added). Sal’s confidence in this early event in his travels shows his innocence – for this plan certainly does not work out, as the dream of an easy trip...
