How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
He’d just written a story about a guy who comes to Denver for the first time. His name is Phil. His traveling companion is a mysterious and quiet fellow called Sam. Phil goes out to dig Denver and gets hung-up with arty types. He comes back to the hotel room. Lugubriously he says, "Sam, they’re here too." And Sam is just looking out the window sadly. "Yes," says Sam, "I know." And the point was that Sam didn’t have to go and look to know this. The arty types were all over America, sucking up its blood. (I.7.1)
Part of what the Beats identify as the "problem" with America is the false intellectualism of its young people. Sal appreciates the genuineness of Dean in contrast.
Quote #5
Great laughter rang from all sides. I wondered what the Spirit of the Mountain was thinking, and looked up and saw jackpines in the moon, and saw ghosts of old miners, and wondered about it. In the whole eastern dark wall of the Divide this night there was silence and the whisper of the wind, except in the ravine where we roared; and on the other side of the Divide was the great Western Slope, and the big plateau that went to Steamboat Springs, and dropped, and led you to the western Colorado desert and the Utah desert; all in darkness now as we fumed and screamed in our mountain nook, mad drunken Americans in the mighty land. We were on the roof of America and all we could do was yell, I guess - across the night, eastward over the Plains, where somewhere an old man with white hair was probably walking toward us with the Word, and would arrive any minute and make us silent. (I.9.18)
Sal sees ignorance in America, and the need for a prophet. He chooses Dean to fill this role, later calling him by that very title.
Quote #6
"No, sir, I never gave a man more than two chances." I sighed. Here we go. We went to the offending room, and Sledge opened the door and told everybody to file out. It was embarrassing. Every single one of us was blushing. This is the story of America. Everybody’s doing what they think they’re supposed to do. So what if a bunch of men talk in loud voices and drink the night? But Sledge wanted to prove something. He made sure to bring me along in case they jumped him. They might have. They were all brothers, all from Alabama. We strolled back to the station, Sledge in front and me in back. (I.11.45)
Sal sees in America a lack of proper reasoning. People are acting blindly, he says. In contrast, Sal and Dean spend their time reasoning and debating – thinking instead of merely acting. Or so they believe. It is an interesting debate whether or not Sal and Dean are guilty of merely "doing what they think they’re supposed to do."