The chapter that was most engaging to me would be chapter 15. Its important because it allows the reader to get another perspective on what most people are going through at this time, and how a lot of the dinner owners see the people that are moving west. It allows us to see why the dinner owners prefer the truck drivers to the "shitheels."
The passage I liked the most is on page 161, right after the family left that bought the bread from Mae and she sold them the candy for one cent. The truck driver calls her on it, and they go back and forth for a little while before they get up to leave.
" Mae called, " Hey! Wait a minute. You got change." "You go to hell," said bill, and the screen door slammed. Mea watched them get into the great truck, watched it lumber off in low gear, and heard the shift up the whining gears to cruising ratio. "Al- " she said softly. He looked up from the hamburger he was patting thin and stacking between wax papers. "What ya want?" " Look there." She pointed at the coins beside the cups- two half-dollars. "
I wondered why Mike said that was rough language with kindness, now I get it! Good to see there were people who still wanted to be kind and do well unto their fellow man when we mainly hear about how tough things were back then. Thanks for sharing and giving me context to that quote he used!
ReplyDeleteChapter 15 opens with such great visual detail. It's like the reader is walking in, and seeing all the old adds, and hearing Bing's voices float through the hamburger stand. Loved that!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed the scene you pointed out to. These truck drivers have that harsh language, but notice the little act of kindness Mae preforms with the candy, and in return, give back. I doubt something like that would happen in the modern world.