A bling monster (allegory)
“A blind monster” is an allegory of “technology, something undefined, but inhumane, mechanical, lifeless.” It is “a dead force.” Both John and Sylvia see it as something “hideous,” they are running from it but fail to escape. The most interesting thing that they don’t even have a name for their fear. Every time they go through “a heavily industrial area of a large city” and “there it all is, the technology.” There are “high barbed-wire fences, locked gates, signs saying NO TRESPASSING,” and “beyond, through sooty air, you see ugly strange shapes.” “Metal and brick” monsters scare them to death.
A cycle (symbol)
A cycle is a symbol of freedom. “You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other,” states the protagonist. You are always “in a compartment” when traveling by car, and because you are used to it you don’t realize that everything you see through that car window “is more TV.” You are “boringly in a frame.” On a cycle “the frame is gone.” You are “completely” in contact with it all. You are “in the scene, not just watching anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.”
Roads (motif)
Roads are one of the main motifs of the novel. “Secondary roads” are “preferred.” “Paved county roads” are “the best,” state highways are “next.” “Freeways” are “the worst.” They want to make good time, but for them “now this is measured with emphasis on "good'' rather than "time''.” “Roads free of drive-ins and billboards” are “better,” roads where “groves and meadows and orchards and lawns come almost to the shoulder,” where “kids wave to you when you ride by,” where “people look from their porches to see who it is,” where “when you stop to ask directions or information the answer tends to be longer than you want rather than short,” where “people ask where you're from and how long you've been riding.”
