Hope in On The Road

On this day of days, the word "hope" is on my mind, and I wondered how many times Jack Kerouac used the word in On The Road. A little searching yielded the following instances from my 1976 Penguin Books edition:

I hope you get where you're going, and be happy when you do. (p. 32)

"Dear Paw, I'll be home Wednesday. Everything's all right with me and I hope the same is with you. Richard." (p. 34)

And I said, "That last thing is what you can't get, Carlo. Nobody can get to that last thing. We keep on living in hopes of catching it once for all." (p. 48)

"Fine. I hope it's all right my staying here." (p. 101)

In these days Carlo had developed a tone of voice which he hoped sounded like what he called The Voice of Rock; the whole idea was to stun people into the realization of the rock. (p. 130)

"I hope I'm not around when you try it," said Jane from the kitchen. (p. 146)

"Take it easy, Dean, we'll get there, I hope; hup, there's the ferry, you don't have to drive us clear into the river." (p. 147)

"Well, good-by, Galatea, and I hope everything works out fine." (p. 205)

"Well, I hope you boys make it to New York." (p. 229)

"Well, Dean," said my aunt, "I hope you'll be able to take care of your new baby that's coming and stay married this time." (p. 253)

"I hope you'll be in New York when I get back," I told him. (p. 253)

"All I hope, Dean, is someday we'll be able to live on the same street with our families and get to be a couple of oldtimers together." (p. 254)

 

There you have it. Make of it what you will. If you need context for any of the quotes and want to read the surrounding passage, I listed the page number for each one so you can get close.

I hope you have hope today.