46 pages • 1 hour read
William Least Heat-MoonBlue Highways: A Journey into America
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “West by Southwest”
Heat-Moon departs out of Phoenix through blooming saguaros, which are tall cactus plants. As is his wont, Heat-Moon decries the loss of old hotels to the commercialization of the modern hotel industry. Using this as juxtaposition—this overtaking of the old by the onward march of modernity—Heat-Moon points out that the old-fashioned cowboy, much like the old hotels, are soon to become artifacts as well. Heat-Moon enters Utah, eventually finding himself amid a wild thunderstorm. Traveling Utah 14 proves harrowing, as the higher the ascent into the mountains, the more drastic the weather changes. He’s now in a full-on winter landscape and ultimately must stop because the road was blockaded by an avalanche. He spends the night in his bunk in Ghost Dancing, sleeping poorly because of the weather.
When the morning comes, a stiff and tired Heat-Moon emerges from Ghost Dancing, happy to be alive and unharmed. He retraces his route back down Utah 14 and heads toward the Mormon town of Cedar City, at the edge of the Escalante Desert. He travels to Southern Utah State College and befriends a student named Kendrick Fritz, a Hopi Indian. Fritz speaks about his family and Hopi culture, showing pictures from the Book of the Hopi. One catches the author’s eye: the symbol of emergence. Heat-Moon points out that many Native tribes have similar images representing the basic concept that “human existence is essentially a series of journeys, and the emergence symbol is a kind of map of the wandering soul, an image in process” (185). Heat-Moon immediately connects with the symbol, and though he draws no explicit comparison to his own life, the symbol becomes meaningful to the rest of the book: Heat-Moon is in the process of emerging as he undertakes his journey.
After the visit with Fritz, Heat-Moon passes into Nevada, where he notes the extreme remoteness of much of the state aside from Las Vegas and Reno. Route 93, for example, traverses nearly 500 miles, and there are only 17 towns. He stops at one of those towns, Pioche, and continues on his way, stopping at other similarly small towns. He enters Northern California and travels in the direction of Lassen Peak, a former volcano.
Toward the end of the chapter, Heat-Moon witnesses a way of life that is economically depressed yet resilient. He meets people who all, in one way or another, have been forced to adapt. They have persisted in a world that is bleak like the weather often is in that part of the country.
Chapter 5 Analysis
Right out of the gate, Heat-Moon analyzes the consequences of the economic-growth-at-all-costs mindset. The commercialization of America is a recurring theme, and Heat-Moon believes he sees it most in the near extinction of privately owned hotels. He claims that among all the current commercialization, “nothing has done more to take a sense of civic identity, a feeling of community, from small-town America” (173). This is a bold assertion in light of his frequent criticisms of the fast-food industry, the American interstate system, and the tokenization of culture both historic and modern. Heat-Moon opposes consumer culture, the apparent corporate takeover of all markets, and the tendency toward conglomeration.
The theme of cultural commandeering appears again when Heat-Moon meets Kendrick Fritz, a Hopi college student. In their discussion, Heat-Moon provides ample narrative space for the Hopi tribe’s story. Native American heritage, customs, history, and white-colonialist ruination are prominent focal points in the narrative. While much of their discussion centers on some aspect of these features, the Hopi symbol of emergence is especially significant. According to the author, “the emergence symbol is a kind of map of the wandering soul, an image of a process” (187). The symbol articulates Heat-Moon’s own wandering soul.
Importantly, when Fritz introduces the religious beliefs and practices of the Hopi, Heat-Moon presses for fuller explanation. The exchange is a sort of dialectic wherein Heat-Moon can explore religion in a way that seems more curious than skeptical. Heat-Moon has the same approach with the Trappist monks in Georgia earlier in the trip. He questions their beliefs, but in his questioning, he arrives at a deeper understanding of how they develop and strengthen that faith. When Heat-Moon objects to apparent contradictions within the Hopi spiritual belief structure, Fritz has a quick and effective reply. Heat-Moon appears more adversarial in the actual discussion, but the reader is ultimately left to evaluate the merits of these beliefs. In other words, the author gives a nonjudgmental treatment of Fritz, the Trappist monk, and other upcoming figures.
