English 3700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Smoke Detector, Castle Doctrine, Consumerism
Document Summary
This foreshadows the major event right at the end of the novel with the child going across the expressway. At an environmental living space level the highway is significant as it speaks to the former magic of freedom of cars, but now freeways separates cities from themselves, and traffic chokes the cities. Dead souls babbling is a reference to the river syx. Already the novel is setting up the notion hat death is important, but the encroachment of death onto a living environment, figuring american suburbs life as having one foot in the grave already. Death is thus at stake in the novel, and is attached to the environment that jack lives in. The highway, and the dead end street leading to a highway are thus significant. The fear of death for individuals, and the role of the encounter with death might have with an individual"s behaviour in the world. It is also at stake at the existential level.
