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 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “North by Northwest”
In Idaho, Heat-Moon contacts a man named Fred Tomlins with whom he once made a brief acquaintance and who told Heat-Moon to look him up if ever he was in that part of the country. Tomlins, an Airforce veteran who flew missions in Vietnam, takes Heat-Moon on his Cessna plane for an impromptu sightseeing jaunt over the famed Snake River. They discuss the Palouse, a distinct agricultural region that overlaps the state boundaries between Washington, Idaho, and a sliver of Oregon. Tomlins briefly explains the soil composition that makes the Palouse such a productive agricultural region. There are three different layers of soil types, the bottom of which is “loess” or “wind-blown glacier dust” (249). Underneath all this soil—estimated by Tomlins to be up to 200 feet deep—is ancient volcanic rock.
Upon leaving the Tomlins residence, Heat-Moon picks up another hitchhiker, this one an older man named Arthur O. Bakke, a devout Seventh Day Adventist who has committed his life to preaching the Christian gospel. All his worldly possession is packed into an aluminum case that he carries with him as he sets out to proselytize. Heat-Moon, not much a fan of organized religion, comes to like Bakke despite their obviously opposing worldviews. Unlike the other philosophical musings in the book, which largely resemble monologues, the two men’s discussions are back and forth, thesis-antithesis style dialogue. Much like he admired the monks in Georgia, Heat-Moon envies Bakke’s ability to live simply.
After dropping off Bakke in Montana, Heat-Moon continues through the state and arrives in Shelby, a rather tough town with tough residents. The Montana Federal Writer’s Project describes Shelby as “the sort of town that producers of western movies have ever since been trying to reproduce” (266); Heat-Moon visits the Oil City Bar and verifies this claim for himself. He is nearly hooked into a fight against his will until he realizes the man picking the fight, Lonnie, is only looking to impress his girlfriend.
As he nears the state border and enters North Dakota, Heat-Moon realizes the vastness of the northern Great Plains. Fighting off fatigue from the monotonous drive, Heat-Moon arrives in Langdon. The town is not what it appears, as Heat-Moon will discover. After a hearty breakfast and forming his initial impressions of Langdon—that it’s a quaint, kempt community—Heat-Moon discovers a peculiar monument in the town center. It is a nuclear warhead. As he inspects the monument, he mingles with a local. The man is proud of this shrine and boasts of his own willingness to defend the country from any threat, real or imagined. Heat-Moon moves from North Dakota into Minnesota and has further discussions with locals. He holds court with an older man who bemoans that modern baseball announcers have made watching the game a dry, uninteresting experience. Heat-Moon continues to Wisconsin, where he picks up another hitchhiker, a girl who has run away from home and who convinces him to take the ferry across Lake Michigan. After dropping off the girl, Heat-Moon travels until he ends the chapter in Harbor Beach, Michigan.
Chapter 7 Analysis
When Heat-Moon and Tomlins take their aerial jaunt over Snake River, their discussion turns to the geology of the Palouse. With attentive detail of the earth’s complex strata, this passage shows the author’s careful description, and this special geology symbolizes what he witnesses on his travels. For example, his “blue highways” are paved-over routes of historical significance. Much like each layer of soil in the Palouse was, during its era, the top layer, so are the routes of Heat-Moon’s journey. The same is true for the many historic towns and villages he visits. The ancient is covered, and it is only through an “excavation”—the author’s investigation into local history—that these places’ historical value comes to light. This figurative excavation is among the book’s essential purposes. Within Tomlins’s incidental description of the Palouse lies the central theme that transformation is constant.
After Tomlins, there is Arthur O. Bakke, a Seventh Day Adventist who has devoted his life to preaching the gospel. Like Heat-Moon, Bakke is out on a journey of his own. When Heat-Moon picks him up, their journeys have a fleeting overlap during which Heat-Moon once again probes not into just the man’s religious beliefs but how he came to those beliefs. The author wants to know why Bakke has left behind convention for a life of evangelism, wandering the country and preaching. Furthermore, Heat-Moon presents this dialogue with Bakke as he did with Fritz and the Trappist monks. This is another dialectic wherein Heat-Moon plays the adversarial role. He explicitly states that he likes Bakke, and while their conversations are spirited debates at times, they remain nonconfrontational. When Bakke cites scripture, Heat-Moon cites Whitman and others; this demonstrates an overlap in ideals. When Heat-Moon points this out to Bakke, however, Bakke claims that it was God who spoke through them. He is too dogmatic to attribute human insight to anything other than God. Furthermore, Bakke’s many biblical citations do not persuade Heat-Moon, and when they part ways, neither man is converted by the other. Nevertheless, the author retells this interaction to show that despite their outwardly contrasting belief systems, at the heart of these differing beliefs is a mutual respect for human dignity.
