"We Blew It"
Laderman points out that many novels present the road journey as "therapeutic relief from stable, repressive domestic American culture" (12), the same can be said for Easy Rider. Wyatt and Bill dream of fleeing from their lives as outcasts in dominant society and find their own conception of freedom. They take to the road, leaving behind all that they know in order to find something better. What Laderman describes as "therapeutic relief", Wyatt in Easy Rider sees as a cure for the sense of captivity he feels from being part of mainstream society. When Wyatt claimed that he and Bill "blew it" at the end of the film, he realized that their arrival and departure from New Orleans signified the end to a journey that they had hoped would free them from the society from which they fled, and open up a new door leading to a more ideal life. The journey was in fact successful for Bill, who died with a feeling of freedom and success, unlike Wyatt, who felt as if his life had ended when their journey had. The two men started their new lives on their motorcycles, making it only fitting that the end of their lives would coincide that of their motorcycles', their vehicles of freedom.