How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Then I went to meet Rita Bettencourt and took her back to the apartment. I got her in my bedroom after a long talk in the dark of the front room. She was a nice little girl, simple and true, and tremendously frightened of sex. I told her it was beautiful. I wanted to prove this to her. She let me prove it, but I was too impatient and proved nothing. She sighed in the dark. "What do you want out of life?" I asked, and I used to ask that all the time of girls.
"I don’t know," she said. "Just wait on tables and try to get along." She yawned. I put my hand over her mouth and told her not to yawn. I tried to tell her how excited I was about life and the things we could do together; saying that, and planning to leave Denver in two days. She turned away wearily. We lay on our backs, looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when He made life so sad. We made vague plans to meet in Frisco. (I.10.9, I.10.10).
Sal believes that life is "so sad" when he is unable to find connections with others. This perhaps explains his obsession with Dean – Dean provides him the opportunity to make soul connections and escape the sadness of solitude.
Quote #8
I wanted to go and get Rita again and tell her a lot more things, and really make love to her this time, and calm her fears about men. Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk - real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious. (I.10.11)
Sal finds male-female interaction to be sad because it lacks what he and Dean have together – a connection of souls, a purity and holiness that eliminates, or at least abates, the sadness he sees elsewhere.
Quote #9
Roy Johnson and I walked in the drizzle; I went to Eddie’s girl’s house to get back my wool plaid shirt, the shirt of Shelton, Nebraska. It was there, all tied up, the whole enormous sadness of a shirt. (I.10.15)
The sadness of the shirt is that it represents Eddie’s abandonment of Sal – twice – on the road.