Question 6

           The concept of “home” functions as two different ways in the novel, in my opinion. The first function is as normalcy, safety,routine and structure for Sal; it’s the place he escapes from and returns back to after he has been “on the road”. “It was October, home, and work again. The first cold winds rattled the windowpane, and I had made it just in time (99)”. However, the home that Sal makes with Terry is completely different he is content and happy with the simplicity of the lifestyle. He works and makes enough just for dinner for the night, and most importantly he is the man of the tent and he has his own family.”Johnny and I played all the time; he liked me to throw him up in the air and down in the bed. Terry sat mending clothes. I was a man of the earth, precisely as I had dreamed I would be in Patterson (90)”. He was living his dream family life even though he wasn’t back in his normal life.

           However his dream didn’t last long because Sal got tired of doing the chores and working just to survive, so he left Terry and Johnny. In contrast to David in Giovanni’s Room, David never really had a home because even when he went back home to the United States he was’t happy or really being himself. Sal had a home and a life to return back to even though he saw it as boring, David didn’t have a home to go back to.  Their styles in leaving was also completely different.  David’s style was passive-aggressive,and he  decided to walk out and leave without and explanation or a goodbye. Sal did let Terry know he was leaving and did say goodbye. However, their “flight” was both because life got rough and they couldn’t take it or handle it and so they left. David always left because he was running away from the truth, so he decided to always let the truth come out in a callous and ruthless way. Sal always left when he got tired of life “on the road” and wanted to go back to his life, especially since his Aunt’s money was always a phone call away.