While on his travels across the country, Heat- Moon visits with a retired teacher on a small island on the Chesapeake. I think that the way she lives her life seems like an inspiration to Heat-Moon. Even though the inhabitants on the island can get to the main land via ferryboat, the island is for the most part very isolated. She notes that, "We've had electricity on the island for only the last twenty-nine years. Phones for less than that. We've been a rustic tribe." Can you imagine living without electricity and phones? That seems unimaginable to me. I think that this idea of living "rustic" would also seem ideal for Heat- Moon. It seems like the perfect place to run away from your problems. As part Native American, I would think he would relish in the idea of living freely and peacefully. I could definitely see Heat- Moon abandoning his way of life and moving to this Island.
Heat Moon and Alice Middleton are extremely similar people. Both have chosen to live parts of their lives in isolation. Heat- Moon has decided to escape from the troubles of his life by fixing up an old van and traveling around the country for a season. Miz Middleton has chosen to live on a six- by- four mile island for the past sixty- three years of her life. There rustic ways of living also shows a strong connection between nature inside each of them. Middleton also yearns for a time when the inhabitants knew more about the plants and animals on the island, while Heat- Moon yearns to live a less complicated lifestyle. They are also both teachers and I would expect them to value the idea of education through thinking and looking at yourself.
1 comment:
That's a good observation that I had not thought of--they are both teachers. I didn't think about that because he is a college professor (who lost his job) and she is a retired elementary school teacher. (I read later that after the book became famous, he went back to teaching, briefly, but dropped it because the students were too interested in writing to make money.) And you are right too about the connection with nature. Even if you look at the first pages of the book, you see that he knows about the seasons, how geese fly with their necks stuck out, and he mentions the squabs in the nest when he sets out on the trip. And I would agree that she is an ispiration to H-M, but not because he would want to live his life there. What inspires him is her love of life; her husband and daughter died, and she's 80-something, but she is endlessly curious about life.
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