Notes

This chapter begins with caricatures of the people of the American Middle West in 1920. The people lack imagination. They do not complain about their dismal surroundings. Descriptions of passengers-for example the old woman 'whose mouth shuts like a mud-turtle's' and her 'extremely indignant parakeet in a cage' and the boy "who plays 'marching to Georgia' till every head in the compartment begins to ache"- indicate the writer's keen observation and wry sense of humor.

The chapter also throws light on the difference in the perception of Carol and Kennicott. According to Carol the people are stolid, provincial and poverty stricken. To Kennicott they are up coming farmers who are quite better off. If Kennicott appreciates Rauskukle's ability to gamble in farmlands Carol asserts that he should pay for beautifying the city, out of which he earned all his wealth. Kennicott who believes in the survival of the fittest can not understand Carol's radical ideas. Nor does he understand her hankering after beauty. When Kennicott rests assured about the not far away prosperity of the American Middle West, Carol worries about the culture that would evolve in that land.

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