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Part 4, Chapter 1
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
The next night, Sal took a bus toward Washington. He wandered around West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas. On the bus, he met someone named Henry Glass who had just gotten out of prison for attacking someone with a knife when he was thirteen.
Sal once again hits the road by himself, sees more of the country, and makes a new friend—a recent ex-convict.
Themes
Sal went to Denver with Henry, where they met up with Tim Gray and Stan Shephard. They all went out drinking, and Stan said that he had heard Sal was going to go to Mexico. Stan wanted to come along, and Sal agreed.
Sal is happy to reunite with some of his old friends, and makes a plan for yet another road trip—this time all the way to Mexico.
Themes
Sal stayed in an apartment that Babe Rawlins arranged for him, and Henry “vanished off.” Sal, Stan, Tim, and Babe spent a week drinking and listening to jazz in Denver. Sal was preparing to go to Mexico when he learned that Dean was on his way to Denver.
As quickly as Sal’s road friend Henry came into his life, he disappears. Sal spends his time drinking and having fun in Denver. Dean tried to stay put in New York but evidently couldn’t pass up an opportunity to travel with Sal once again.
Themes
Sal imagined Dean traveling west like “a burning shuddering frightful angel...pursuing me like the Shrouded Traveler.” He figured Dean had “gone mad again.” The new plan was now for Dean to drive Sal down to Mexico.
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