How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
That night it started raining as Lee Ann gave dirty looks to both of us. Not a cent left in the house. The rain drummed on the roof. "It’s going to last for a week," said Remi. He had taken off his beautiful suit; he was back in his miserable shorts and Army cap and T-shirt. His great brown sad eyes stared at the planks of the floor. The gun lay on the table. We could hear Mr. Snow laughing his head off across the rainy night somewhere. (I.11.81)
Remi’s routine mirrors Sal’s own anticipation, arrival, disappointment, and sad return pattern. For Remi, the journeys are just shorter, and are centered around money.
Quote #11
In the morning, as Remi and Lee Ann slept, and as I looked with some sadness at the big pile of wash Remi and I were scheduled to do in the Bendix machine in the shack in the back (which had always been such a joyous sunny operation among the colored women and with Mr. Snow laughing his head off), I decided to leave. (I.11.100)
Sal’s restlessness and movement across the country is focused around avoiding sadness. He flees it from one state to the next, but seems to find it everywhere he goes. The interesting question is what happens to the sadness in Mexico, which is supposedly the end of the road.
Quote #12
I had bought my ticket and was waiting for the LA bus when all of a sudden I saw the cutest little Mexican girl in slacks come cutting across my sight. She was in one of the buses that had just pulled in with a big sigh of airbrakes; it was discharging passengers for a rest stop. Her breasts stuck out straight and true; her little flanks looked delicious; her hair was long and lustrous black; and her eyes were great big blue things with timidities inside. I wished I was on her bus. A pain stabbed my heart, as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world. The announcer called the LA bus. I picked up my bag and got on, and who should be sitting there alone but the Mexican girl. I dropped right opposite her and began scheming right off. I was so lonely, so sad, so tired, so quivering, so broken, so beat, that I got up my courage, the courage necessary to approach a strange girl, and acted. Even then I spent five minutes beating my thighs in the dark as the bus rolled down the road. (I.12.5)
Sal has the courage to approach Terry because he is sad. This suggests that sadness rises from solitude, and that interaction with others is an attempt to abate that sadness.