“The Road” represent in this novel Sal’s journey to self-discovery. He advances from every experience that he encounters and defines a new piece of himself each time. As Sal stated “I realized that I had died and been reborn numberless times but just didn’t remember because the transitions from life to death and back are so ghostly easy, a magical action for naught, like falling asleep and waking up again a million times, the utter casualness and deep ignorance of it”. On “The Road” Sal is constantly experiencing life changing events that alter his perspective on life.
Yes, the symbol of “the road” may be about spirituality as much as it is about “freedom” or “life.”