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.
Further Reading & Resources
Further Reading: Literature
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (1855)
This poetry collection is one of two books Heat-Moon brings on his journey. Whitman, an American humanist writer, explores self-discovery and humanity’s relationship to nature. In an interview with independent journalist Hank Nuwer, Heat-Moon stated that “in the early part of Blue Highways, Walt Whitman predominates where there’s some bitterness and certainly a great sense of loss in the narrator” (Nuwer, Hank. “The Road to Serendipity.” 2007).
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt (1932)
In the second book Heat-Moon takes with him, American writer Neihardt tells the story of an Oglala Lakota traditional healer named Black Elk. The book also addresses the Native American ceremony of the Ghost Dance, after which Heat-Moon names his van. In the interview with Nuwer, Heat-Moon explained that “as the book goes on, and the narrator moves more into a reemergence, a reawakening of his red background, Black Elk becomes the predominant outside spokesman.”
Further Reading: Beyond Literature
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck (1962)
American author John Steinbeck wrote his own travelogue portraying a 1960 road trip around the States. Literary scholar Renée Bryzik asserts that Blue Highways resembles a mix between the Steinway text and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (Bryzik, Renée. “Repaving America: Ecocentric Travel in William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways.” 2010).
Hopi Oral Tradition and the Archeology of Identity by Wesley Bernardini (2005)
The Hopi symbol of emergence is thematically vital in Blue Highways, and Heat-Moon shows keen interest in the Hopi historical identity and belief system. From the publisher’s website: “Focusing on insights that oral tradition has to offer about […] identity formation, [Bernardini] describes how each Hopi clan acquired its particular identity from the experiences it accumulated on its unique migration pathway.”
Refiguring the Map of Sorrow: Nature Writing and Autobiography by Mark Allister (2001)
In this collection of ecocritical works by various authors (including Heat-Moon), Allister examines what he calls a “grief narrative.” The collection explores how nature writing can be part of a healing grieving process.
An Island Out of Time: A Memoir by Tom Horton (1996)
In Chapter 9 of Blue Highways, Heat-Moon interviews Alice Middleton, a resident of Smith Island in Chesapeake Bay. Horton’s memoir draws a vivid portrait of this traditional island community whose ways of life seem “out of time.”
Video and Podcast Resources
Selma directed by Ava DuVernay (2014)
In and around Selma, Alabama, Heat-Moon investigates the city’s race relations and observes deeply entrenched, virulent racism. DuVernay’s historical drama, set over a decade before Heat-Moon’s road trip, is based on 1960s civil rights efforts led by Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Hosea Williams.
