Billy and Wyatt are America
The driving force propelling most road movies [...] is an embrace of the journey as a means of cultural critique. (Laderman)Billy and Wyatt seem to physically represent aspects of America. Billy, with his cowboy outfit, represents the past of America, while Wyatt is surrounded by the American flag, on his bike, on his jacket and helmet. The journey in road movies usually is accompanied by the characters growing and changing, learning about themselves, their friendship and their views of the world. Yet Billy and Wyatt are the same people throughout the movie, without changing clothes, or changing their habbits (they use drugs throughout, for example) and without forming any new permanent friendship bonds.
Billy and Wyatt travel oustide the city, through the countryside of the US. In their travel, they meet new people, at a special commune. Though they see these people live a different life, separate from the urban area, with their own rules and way of life, the men leave it, not having become part of that community. These men also meet several people from a more typical small town environment. These rural individuals do not accept the men, their dress, their bikes or their drugs. These is no communication, no acceptance and no unity.
The men don't find acceptance in hotels, or in restaurants in the countryside. They are also taken away, put in jail, from a parade in a city. So in the rural and urban areas do not accept their presence. When they do find a friend in George, their friendship is cut short by the hatred of others. So, through their long travel through most of the United States, the men find no friendship, find no diversity, and they do not change at all.
The two white men, interact with other white men, use white women and do not interact with anyone else on the road. At the end of the movie, their metaphoric search for America is completely destroyed. The critique of America or the flaws in America are visually represented through the killing of the cowboy, and the destruction of the American flag, along with the explosion of the bikes. In the end, the men did not find themselves, and they did not find anything within America that they could integrate into.