0), a much different and more depressing tone than on the way towards Central City.When Dean, Sal, and a new companion Stan decide on a trip to Mexico, the wear and tear of many compiled and disparaging events begins to change Sal. This does not stop him from trying once again to succeed in an incredible journey that they all hope will turn out just as planned. This time though, the stakes are much higher. This is shown by the passage in which Kerouac writes "’Man, this will finally take us to IT!’ said Dean with definite faith" (253). The trip begins with such optimism for Dean that he believes that they will all finally discover the thing that they all assume that they are missing in their lives. A trip like this, after noticing the events of the rest of the story, is almost certain to fail, as Sal (who is seriously beginning to doubt all of this unabashed optimism) confirms. When Stan gets stung by a bee and begins to swell up too much to ignore, Sal shows his weariness of the trip by saying, "Damn! It made the whole trip seem sinister and doomed" (256). Sal’s inclination, for the first time not an optimistic one, is correct as the trip to Mexico ends up being more than they can handle. Vopat notes the change during the trip, and the higher stakes, saying that "in Mexico Sal hopes to escape from the self, civilization, and their discontents" (Vopat, 393), in other words, Sal is trying to find IT. She then goes on , quoting Sal: "the strange Arabian paradise we had finally found at the end of the hard, hard road was only a wild whore house after all" (Vopat, 393). It is impossible to consider this event anything other than a comment on the harsh and depressing realities of the world, the same realities that Vopat sees in the American landscape of Sal Paradise’s story. "America is a land of corruption and hypocrisy, promising everything and delivering nothing, living off the innocence and opportunity...
