p. 771 "I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation -- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every state I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move."
Question: Where does this yearning desire come from? And, do you think Steinbeck capitalized "Here" to mimic Joseph Addison's use of capital letters?
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I love this quote because what Steinbeck says here is so fundamentally true. As I read this, I thought, "Yes, I want to go to! I want to travel to something new and exciting and leave the familiar behind." There are very few people that I've met who don't like to travel. Like Kerouac, Steinbeck sees an internal human quality that resonates universally - the urge to just get away. It gives people with completely different backrounds something in common; we can all relate to this hunger.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it that people want to move away from? Is it, like we talked about in On the Road, the monontony of everyday life, or is it something more than that?