On the Road: Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Sal stayed at home for a year, during which time he attended school on the G.I. bill and finished his book. He went to visit his brother in Testament, Virginia for Christmas, 1948, and wrote to Dean to tell him where he’d be. While sitting around his brother’s house with relatives, a dirty car pulled up and a “weary young fellow,” came to the door. Sal recognized him as Dean.

Along with Dean were Marylou and someone named Ed Dunkel. Sal’s family and southern relatives looked at Dean, Marylou, and Ed with confusion. Sal’s brother was planning on moving soon, and was sending some furniture to Sal’s aunt’s house in Paterson. Dean offered to drive the furniture up to New Jersey.

Sal learned that Dean had lived with Camille in San Francisco and had a daughter. He worked on the railroad and made decent money, but one day “blew his top,” and decided to buy a car and drive to the east coast to see Sal. He told Camille he’d be back in a month. Sal took Ed, who also worked on the railroad, with him on the trip.

Ed wanted to bring his girlfriend Galatea along, but Galatea wouldn’t come unless Ed married her. So, Ed married her and the three started driving east. Galatea kept wanting to sleep at hotels, which drained all their money, so Ed and Dean “gave her the slip in a hotel lobby.”

Dean felt a desire to see Marylou again, so he drove to Denver and found her. They “had ten hours of wild lovemaking,” and decided they would be together again. Dean, Marylou, and Ed drove through the cold Midwest and picked up a hitchhiked who promised them a dollar if they drove him to Memphis. When they got to Memphis, though, the man couldn’t find his dollar. They finally got to Sal’s brother’s house in Virginia, not having eaten for 30 hours.

Dean danced inside to a jazz record, to the dismay of Sal’s southern relatives. Sal says that Dean’s madness “had bloomed into a weird flower.” He went with Dean, Ed, and Marylou for a spin in Dean’s car. They saw a poor black man in a mule wagon, and Dean told everyone to “consider his soul.” He said that he would like to know what the man was “poor-ass pondering about this year’s turnip greens and ham.”

Dean then suddenly sped away and asked Sal where Carlo was. Dean thought that “this was the new and complete Dean, grown to maturity.” He pulled into the railway station, parked, and bought some cigarettes, talking and laughing. Sal says Dean’s “laugh was maniacal.”

Dean saw a black woman and said, “Dig her, ...that little gone black lovely. Ah! Hmm!” Dean, Sal, Marylou, and Ed sped back to Dean’s brother’s house. Sal says that he now had “the bug,” again, the itch for “another spurt around the road.”