On the Road: Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

The next day, Dean was helping Bull salvage a piece of wood for a shelf. As he practiced throwing knives at a target, Bull shared some of his quasi-conspiracy theories with Sal, about how the government deliberately keeps safer tires, gum that prevents cavities forever, and clothes that last forever from the public.

Bull told Sal some odd stories about his aunt, a man with a brain disease that made him somewhat crazy, his cats, and his Portuguese neighbors. Bull told Sal to try his “orgone accumulator,” a big box with a chair inside that accumulates orgones, “vibratory atmospheric atoms of the life-principle.”

Bull and Sal went to the horse races. One horse’s name (Big Pop) reminded Sal of his father, but Bull bet on a different horse. Big Pop won and Bull said they should have paid attention to Sal’s “vision.” On the ride back from the races, Bull told Sal his belief that the living are in contact with the dead, but that scientists simply don’t understand the mutation in the brain that happens upon death.

Back at Bull’s place, Sal, Dean, and Ed played basketball and then “turned to feats of athletic prowess.” Then, Sal, Dean, and Ed went into New Orleans, hopping onto a freight train on the way. Bull and Jane were beginning to get sick of all the company at their house, and when Sal got his G.I. check he decided to leave. He, Dean, and Marylou drove off toward California.