Miz Alice talks about a recent disconnection of the kids from the land, "I read in the Sun that kids feel disconnected. How can that be? Connections lying over the land like stardust. They live in the Land of Nod"(394). How do you think this relates to Heat-Moon's overall story and point of view in Blue Highways?
Heat-Moon's overall views towards Miz Alice's opinions on disconnection with the land has a strong relation to his overall point. After having his wife leave him his journey across the U.S. is in search for a connection with something. He travels to feel a purpose and connection with the places that he explores. Relating to Miz Alice's point is a main influence on the story's meaning as a whole.
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I completely agree with Lauren. I think Heat-Moon is surrounded as well with many ways to connect but it will take him a life journey to find that connection. I think Mitz doesn't realize that it does take an internal journey of some kind to find a connection with something bigger.
Miz Alice is a character, quirky. Some of her comments are kind of random, but right before this quote, she was talking about how the kids speed by in their cars, and they don't notice anything out the window, don't know an egret from a crane. Not knowing about nature at all is disconnection. She says the grave is for people who have seen enough, but twenty year-olds seem to have seen enough; they don't care to look around them; they just throw trash out the window of their cars as they speed by. I'd connect this attitude with what she joking calls the "I-land" --how Smith Island has changed because of the intrusion of the modern world. People are too absorbed with themselves to care about the land and care for it. I see this attitude avery Sunday morning when I walk my dog in the park. It's a nice natural area in Richardson, with a gravel trail through the woods. But on weekends, I see brown paper bags full of empty beer bottles tossedinto the park. The beauty of the place is spoiled. I wonder what could be going through the minds of people who see the park as a place to toss their trash.
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