Question 1 ( How place shapes Sal Paradise and Micky Ward. )

     Both Sal Paradise and Micky Ward are greatly shaped by the places they live in, along with the atmosphere surrounding the places they live. Where they live and the atmosphere around them, plays a vital role in life changing decisions each of them make as they continue to grow and mature throughout their lives. The primary difference between these two characters is that one never leaves the city he was raised in, while the other has multiple places that help shape his life. In "On the Road" the character Sal Paradise is constantly being shaped as a result of always being on the move, and never settling down in one location. On the contrary, in "The Fighter", professional boxer Micky Ward has never left the city of Lowell, which he claims is an important reason to why he had the success in the ring. Regardless of whether they left home or not, each character was molded from both the places and atmospheres they lived in.

     The novel "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac follows the narrator Sal Paradise in his long, seemingly endless journey, back and forth across the United States and even into Mexico. In "On the Road" the reader journeys with Sal as he walks, hitches rides, and buys bus tickets across the country while finding friends who will offer him excitement and shelter. Through these trips we experience Sal's alcohol addiction, meeting strangers, small short standing jobs, gaining and losing of friends, and promiscuous behavior. As Sal goes on traveling and becoming even more restless he begins to start maturing and gaining a new perspective on life which eventually molds him into the successful writer and honest husband he was destined to be.

     The novel opens up with Sal living at his aunt's apartment in New York, which he finds extremely boring and repetitive with no new experiences to offer him. At that same time Dean Moriarty had just gotten out of another stay in jail and headed east to New York with his newly wedded fiance Marylou, to meet Sal Paradise.While in New York, Dean, Sal, and their other friend Carlo Marx spend several nights out together drinking and talking non-stop. Sal has always dreamed of heading out west, but never actually set out to. Once Dean came, Sal fell in love with his energetic and lively personality, and soon realized that all the excitement that was nonexistent in his life was waiting for him on the road.

     Sal's first move west to Colorado, and first move to becoming a different kind of person started out by taking a bus to Chicago which cost him most of his money. Immediately after Sal starts to become a different type of person, more free and full of spirit, willing to do things that are out of the ordinary. Even while laying in his hotel room bed in Des Moines, Sal begins to question where or who he even is. He feels like a brand new person and wants to set off to find out more about himself. After leaving his hotel room, he hitches a ride from a couple of farmers making their way to Los Angeles. The places he stops at and passes excite him and make him lust for more than what he is seeing. The geographical scenery that now surrounds Sal's life creates a sense of parallelism to his personality and emotions. He is now opening up, and seeing all of his dreams and visions come to life right in front of him. Finally when he has traveled halfway across America he states " I am at the dividing line of the East of my youth and the West of my future" meaning there is much more adventures lying ahead.

      Once Sal arrives in Denver he doesn't enjoy his time there for too long. The sense of excitement he had from traveling to Denver was missing and he longed for it. This shows that once Sal hit the road, he became addicted to it and restless. He did not want to settle down just yet. His whole childhood had been in New York, but now he always wants to be on the move and continue west. He was starting to become just like Dean, who was a main part of the atmosphere around him. In the novel Dean was always on the move, and constantly making people around him dislike him for his rash decisions  He had been married three times, and had such a restless that he kept going back and forth between his first wife Marylou and his second wife Camille, leaving behind his child constantly. Dean hadn't a care in the world for anybody but himself, and never cared what others thought of him. He was a free spirit, but little to Sal's knowledge, in the end this wasn't the life he wanted.

     The free spirited and restless atmosphere that Dean created around Sal carried with him throughout the novel. After meeting Dean in New York and seeing his lifestyle, Sal immediatly began West, and created the habit drinking at bars until he was drunk, and hitting on as many waitresses as he could. For instance when Sal hitched a ride with two farmers who were on their way to Los Angeles, Sal and a strange character named Montana Slim got off at a stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming where they went to the local bars. Here Sal and Montana Slim get drunk, and Sal began to unsuccessfully try to pick up a Mexican waiter. Sal then goes onto another where he does pick up a waiter and spends most of his money to have sex with her.

     In San Francisco we begin to see Dean's knack of ruining relationships through rash decisions rub off on Sal. While in San Francisco Sal stayed for a while at his friend Remi's apartment. What ruined there relationship was the care free and alcoholic lifestyle Sal had developed from being on the road. On night Remi informed Sal that his stepfather was paying him a visit and he wanted to make a good impression. All Remi simply asked of that night was for Sal to be respectful and don't do anything  that would jeopardize his stepfathers view of him. To no surprise Sal showed up drunk and late for dinner with his friend Ed whom he had met while traveling to Colorado. Being used to not having a home and surrounding himself with drunks, spiritual, and free caring people, Sal does not value the aspect of friendship like he once used to. He only idolizes and cherishes his friendship with Dean because of the fun and exciting lifestyle Dean introduced him to.

     With no place to stay in California anymore, Sal once again heads to the road to go back east, but this time meets a Mexican woman named Terry. They decide that they're going to stay in Los Angeles together and get a hotel room. This little stint actually turns into a fifteen day long relationship, where the two unsuccessfully plan to go back to New York together. With little money between the two of them, they go back to Terry's brothers house in Sanibal where Sal meets Terry's brother Ricky, friend Ponzo, and son John. While together the couple goes out drinking, and making love in the neighbors barn before Sal decides it is time for him to go back to New York. For the short time he was with Terry, Sal enjoyed having the sense of being a father and a husband, but just as we saw with Dean and his relationships, they don't last long.

     Later on in the novel Dean, Marylou, and Sal are driving through Louisiana and Texas, where they get thrown off the side of the rode into some mud by an oncoming drunk driver. After pushing the car out of the mud, the threesomes clothes are soaked and covered in mud. So as a result they decide to drive naked for a while with other cars and truck drivers passing them with shocking facial expressions. Once again we see the care free attitude from living life on the road. There are no consequences and you don't have to worry about your reputation and people judging you. This reason could possibly be why Sal has become the type of person he has on the road.

     The last expedition that Sal, Dean, and others embark on is to Mexico. Driving through Gregoria with their headlights broken in the dark, humid, mosquito filled air Sal begins to feel outside of his comfort zone. Judging from his past behaviors who knew he had one on the road? He no longer feels the all embracing humanity with the people he passes like in America, but feels difference while driving by. The ancient looking architecture, and small villages seemed out of the norm for Sal. His whole time on the road, the more he moved the better things seemed to him, but now he's realizing how much home means to him. Later in Mexico City Sal gets a fever so severe he becomes delirious and unconscious. When he awakes Dean tells him that his divorce went through and leaves him to go back to the states. Seeing this made Sal realize that he didn't want to be like Dean after all. He found his meaning of existence in Mexico and realized what he wanted to do, while Dean was still trying to figure it out. In the end Sal ends up confident and in love with the girl of his dreams, while Dean is still lost out on the road.

     Being on the road shaped Sal into a more spirited and care free person who took in the habits of sex, drinking, and drugs. Being at home in New York Sal felt that his life was very boring and lacking the excitement he always envisioned being out west. Immediately Sal begins to develop this promiscuous and care free lifestyle sleeping with several women, getting drunk almost every night, and doing things that surrounding people look at in awe. He was always on the move and because of this there was no consequences, and he didn't have to answer to anyone about anything he did. The amount of freedom he had made him mad, and turned him into the restless man he was. If you think about it Sal was not shaped by places but by the fact that he did not even have a place.

     The movie "The Fighter" is based on the life of professional boxer and Lowell, Massachusetts native Micky "Irish" Ward. This movie covers several important aspects of Micky's life from his boxing career to his life back home in Lowell. "The Fighter" doesn't just  display the hardships Micky Ward faced as a professional boxer trying to make a name for himself, but also the hardships he dealt with at home, and the hardships the city of Lowell was facing since the decline of the Industrial Revolution. Micky Ward places much of his success on the fact that he did come from Lowell, and how the place he lived helped shape him into the champion he is today.

      Growing up in the city of Lowell, Micky Ward was faced with a rough lifestyle. The city of Lowell was filled with drugs, crime, and poor conditions all of which Micky had to deal with.  In "The Fighter" Micky's brother Dicky was a very talented and successful boxer who knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard in an HBO fight, but had his career fall apart from cocaine addiction. Dicky had also been getting arrested several times, which put stress on Micky. In this movie Micky's two main concerns are his family and the city of Lowell, which he eventually has to pick between. He knew that if he ever wanted to make a name for himself he'd have to leave his mother from being his manager and brother as his trainer. Although Micky knew that this would cause conflict between his new staff and his family, he emphasizes the fact that he needs both of them in order to achieve his success.

     Growing up in Lowell in tough neighborhoods helped make Micky the successful boxer he was. Without the rough neighborhoods and violence in the city he grew up in he would have never had to be as tough as he was. Especially with his father absent from his life, and his brother always being in and out of jail Micky had to take over the role as the man of the house. As a result of this Micky was very mature for his age, and had to be mentally and physically tough enough to deal with his family's situation.

     From staying in Lowell all of his life Micky found a sense of pride from where he came from and became emotionally attached to the city. It was partially for this reason that Micky kept on fighting and pushing his limits to put Lowell back on the map. He wanted to finally bring something positive back to Lowell to take its focus away from drugs and crime. In between one of the rounds how much Lowell means to Micky is dramatically emphasized. It is when Dicky grabs Micky and says "Are you like me? Was it just good enough to fight Sugar Ray? Never had to win, did I? You gotta do more in there. You gotta win a title. For you, for me, for Lowell." This shows how crucial of a role the city of Lowell ,and all of the believers in Lowell were to get him to the point where he was fighting for the World Championship. 

     In the end because Micky chose to stay in Lowell he became a much tougher person which translated into his toughness in the ring. As a result of his father being absent and his brother never being there to help out the family from being in and out of jail Micky matured and toughened at a young age. His deep connection with Lowell fueled the fight in him while he was in and out of the ring. Growing up he thought about how miserable of a place it was, but seeing how important it was to the success of his boxing career made him realize just how special Lowell actually was. Growing up in a city like that gave him something to fight for and he knew that. If he had grown up in New York City like Sal who knows how successful Micky would have been, he wouldn't have much to fight for. That city is full of success and opportunity to get away from bad conditions. Without the background of growing up in a place like Lowell Micky may have never been shaped into the successful world champion boxer he became.