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Part 2, Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On the Road, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom, Travel, and Wandering
Society, Norms, and Counterculture
Friendship
Writing
America
Privilege and Prejudice
Summary
Analysis
Dean finally found Sal in this state and brought him to his house with Camille. Sal liked Camille better than Marylou, who he told Dean was a whore. Dean got a job selling pressure cookers door-to-door. At first, he was hugely enthusiastic about it, but soon lost interest.
Sal continues with his misogyny toward Marylou. Dean is at first excited to sell pressure cookers, but can’t stay happy in a normal, steady job for long.
Themes
Sal and Dean saw Slim Gaillard, a black jazz musician, perform in a nightclub. Dean loved the performance and thought Slim was God. Sal describes all the wonderful jazz musicians he and Dean saw in San Francisco. He “goofed around” in the city until his next G.I. check came, and then he got ready to go back home.
Dean and Sal’s only goals in the city are to have fun and listen to jazz. Dean finds an intense spirituality in jazz, which (with its nontraditional character and improvisation) was very important to the style of Beat writing.
Themes
On the last night before leaving San Francisco, Sal went out with Dean. Dean found Marylou and the three of them went all over the city, “hitting Negro jazz shacks.” Sal says he really wanted to leave, and took off the next morning, saying goodbye to Dean and Marylou.
Dean and Sal enjoy going to “Negro jazz shacks” but don’t stop to think about the African Americans themselves who lack the freedoms they themselves cherish. After a short stay in San Francisco, Sal feels the need to get moving again.
Themes
