Longing for Freedom Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Longing for Freedom - Coursework Example Once in the small and the forgotten places he finds on the map (the book is named for the blue highways that are the small state and county roads on his map) it may be an out of the way diner or caf, a little college community, even a monastery, he retells histories and tales that make these places significant in their own way. He found out much that was new and strange to him: one thing that struck him and made him think was repeatedly finding one shoe as he made his way across the country. Where was the other shoe Why would someone throw one shoe out the car window What good was the other one, alone He finally concluded, without much conviction, that all those solitary shoes were the result of people dangling their feet out the window, with one shoe accidentally flying off and out onto the roadside. "On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and the back roads blue. Now even the colors are changing. But in those brevities just before dawn and a little after dusk - times neither day nor night - the old roads return to the sky some of its color. Then, in truth, they carry a mysterious cast of blue, and it's that time when the pull of the blue highways is strongest ..." Blue Highways is more than just an autobiographical road novel - it contains innumerable aspects of the 'American road culture', ranging from ethnical problems and the undeniable importance of diners to the true significance of road literature. In other words, W. Least Heat Moon somehow assists in determining the myth of the road and he invites the reader to join him on a more abstract kind of road, namely that from the past to the present. Having Native American ancestors himself, Least Heat Moon also lays enormous emphasis on the aspect of race and ethnicity on the road. Why do people leave home to go on such an extended road trip What is the myth of the road that fascinates so many And above all, what do such road protagonists expect to find or discover on the road For William Least heat Moon the journey is on the one hand a sort of escape from home and on the other hand it obviously represents an attempt to forget or even heal. "Etymology: 'curious', related to 'cure', once meant 'carefully observant'. Maybe a tonic of curiosity would counter my numbing sense that life inevitably creeps toward the absurd. 'Absurd', by the way, derives from a Latin word meaning 'deaf, dulled'. Maybe the road could provide a therapy through observation of the ordinary and obvious, a means whereby the outer eye opens an inner one." (Blue Highways, p.17) As the name 'Least Heat Moon' already indicates, his ancestors were Native Americans and thus his journey is as well an occasion to search for his origins, to somehow trace his ancestral roots. Most road protagonists set out alone with the simple reason to find their true self. For William Least Heat Moon this search for himself requires the loneliness of the back roads and this purity of experience. However, although the loneliness of the back roads is quite an important aspect, Least Heat Moon knows that it is exactly his traveling alone that also brings him into contact with people that makes him