“It is the end of the road; it is the end of being on the road; and it is the end of wanting to be on the road” (Laderman 77).
I found it appropriate that
Easy Rider started Wyatt and Billy’s journey with “Born to be Wild” playing in the background because the whole purpose of Wyatt and Billy’s journey on the road was to find America and they were willing to do whatever it took to find it. As they traveled, their goal was to experience the America that they had never known. They wanted to see if it truly existed.
At the end of the film, as Wyatt and Billy sit around their campfire, Billy excitedly exclaims “we did it,” but Wyatt replies with, “we blew it.” Through these words Wyatt is expressing his feelings of failure for not finding what they were originally looking for. The two of them have completely different interpretations of the success of their journey on the road. Billy feels like life is just beginning because of the money that they received, but Wyatt feels like life is coming to an end because he was not able to find what he was originally looking for. At this point in the film Wyatt has given up on his search to find the real America he was originally searching for. It is the end of his road, his being on the road, and his wanting to be on the road.