Roads to Quoz

2/22/22

Roads to Quoz, An American Mosey by William Least Heat-Moon describes in detail a traveler’s exploration of life in rural America. Heat-Moon follows a husband and wife along their journeys. The traveling pair went to Joe’s Country Store in Little Lanesboro first. The store had an ‘old village grocery’ look to it. Heat-Moon narrators the surroundings and sets the scene. There was a standard meat-and-cheese counter with a slant-front glass case where all the magic went down. After looking through all the ingredients and quality products, the store lady shared the ‘historical highlights’ of the village and spoke with the couple. The lady conveyed stories and photos with the help of her daughter while feeding her guests sandwiches. William Least Heat-Moon’s story also includes precise language and style. He encloses particular information about the passage’s form, structure, and language, which assists the audience in conveying a solid understanding. 
The form of this passage is in a short story, along with travel and descriptive writing styles. Travel writing moves from one occurrence to another quickly and smoothly without confusing the reader. It allows for a much better rhythm and flow. Descriptive writing gives the reader a more suitable concept of the events. The travelers begin in Little Lanesboro at a store called Joe’s Country. They see a meat-and-cheese counter which begins their sandwich journey. In paragraph two, travel writing is displayed when the writer lists off the ingredients; “...Pat stuffed green peppers, banana peppers, pepperoncini pimiento olives, Greek olives….” After that, we are introduced to the ‘pamphlet of historical highlights.’ The lady and her daughter, Sarah, show the couple snapshots, old articles, and news clippings of the village. In paragraph four, we end off with a video of the ‘Old Man Susquehanna’ and the tale of his occurrence in town. This passage has a solid form, and Heat-Moon keeps it short and straightforward. 
The story is structured chronologically and describes the events as they occur from the couple's perspective. Each paragraph goes together, and all circumstances follow one another entirely. Paragraph one tells us the setting and gives readers background knowledge of what they are about to read. Paragraph two begins with a list of ingredients and steps when making a sandwich. This choice of ingredients led to a commentary down by the traveler which quote, “...turned a transaction into a conversation….” This conversation had more light shed on it in paragraph three. The mother and daughter at the store gathered their things and said, ‘You might be interested in this,’ she handed them a pamphlet that included a vast amount of information. Information that even answered their commentary. The last paragraph is wrapped with a video of the ‘Old Man Susquehanna.’ He was said to be “...coming into town and, with neither invitation nor a wiping of his feet, slipping into parlors to leave behind mud and stink.”
    Heat-Moon’s usages of language express in-depth the illustrations that have taken residence. He consistently uses literary devices such as imagery, and his word choices also contain compelling vocabulary and adjectives. During the first few sentences, imagery and adjectives are utilized when Joe’s Country is described; “It had the look of an old village-grocery …. a slant-front glass case.” These terms define the look of the setting. In paragraph two, when Heat-Moon lists the ingredients, extensive words like ‘short,’ ‘green,’ ‘stuffed’, ‘chopped,’ and ‘sliced’ help readers visualize the picture. Paragraph three also incorporates this language usage. When the mother and daughter are discussing the information they carry, we see a lot of adjectives. The sentence, “...personal archive a visitor may find in hinterland America: an album of blurry snapshots or a folder of yellowed news clippings…”, includes two. Finally, within the last paragraph, the ‘Old Man Susquehanna’ video exhibits more. The old man never wiped his feet, slipping into places, leaving mud and stink behind.