0
Vsuresh Posted 13 years ago
Vocabulary
meaning
Hi
Please help me with the meaning.
Context: This is the from the story The Hack Driver by Sinclair Lewis. The narrator is of the opinion that even the rich people holding high offices secretly loaf around with those who are in the underworld doing dirty things for that is what man, by nature, prefer and if he seems to pose himself to be refined and elegant, it is only to please his spouse and the the society he belongs by virtue of his job and social status.
Please tell me what he means by the words in bold.
"...your pompous big-city man will contrive to get back and see him every year, and loaf with him, and secretly prefer him to all the highfalutin leaders of the city.
There’s that much truth, at least, to this Open Spaces stuff you read in advertisements of wild and woolly Western novels. I don’t know the philosophy of it; perhaps it means that we retain a decent simplicity, no matter how much we are tied to Things, to houses and motors and expensive wives. Or again it may give away the whole game of civilization; may mean that the apparently civilized man is at heart nothing but a hobo who prefers flannel shirts and bristly cheeks and cussing and dirty tin plates to all the trim, hygienic, forward-looking life our womenfolks make us put on for them."
Please help me with the meaning.
Context: This is the from the story The Hack Driver by Sinclair Lewis. The narrator is of the opinion that even the rich people holding high offices secretly loaf around with those who are in the underworld doing dirty things for that is what man, by nature, prefer and if he seems to pose himself to be refined and elegant, it is only to please his spouse and the the society he belongs by virtue of his job and social status.
Please tell me what he means by the words in bold.
"...your pompous big-city man will contrive to get back and see him every year, and loaf with him, and secretly prefer him to all the highfalutin leaders of the city.
There’s that much truth, at least, to this Open Spaces stuff you read in advertisements of wild and woolly Western novels. I don’t know the philosophy of it; perhaps it means that we retain a decent simplicity, no matter how much we are tied to Things, to houses and motors and expensive wives. Or again it may give away the whole game of civilization; may mean that the apparently civilized man is at heart nothing but a hobo who prefers flannel shirts and bristly cheeks and cussing and dirty tin plates to all the trim, hygienic, forward-looking life our womenfolks make us put on for them."
Top answer
vsuresh There’s that much truth, at least, to this Open Spaces stuff you read in advertisements of wild and woolly Western novels. org/wiki/Go_West,_young_man "Open Spaces" is a depiction of the wild (uncivilized) West. When someone goes west, they leave civilization behind.
- vsuresh There’s that much truth, at least, to this Open Spaces stuff you read in advertisements of wild and woolly Western novels.
- org/wiki/Go_West,_young_man "Open Spaces" is a depiction of the wild (uncivilized) West.
- When someone goes west, they leave civilization behind.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
6 Answers
0
vsureshThere’s that much truth, at least, to this Open Spaces stuff you read in advertisements of wild and woolly Western novels.It is most likely an allusion to the background behind his book title, "Go East,..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_West,_young_man
00
Thank you, AlpheccaStars.
Please help me with this.
Please help me with this.
"Go West, young man, go West. There is health in the country, and room away from our crowds of idlers and imbeciles." "That," I said, "is very frank advice, but it is medicine easier given than taken. It is a wide country, but I do not know just where to go." "It is all room away from the paveme |
00
vsureshThere is health in the country, and room away from our crowds of idlers and imbeciles.The crowds of idlers and imbeciles are in the cities in the east.
I am not sure what story you are referring to - Go West... or "The Hack Driver"
No one could be an idler in the west. You needed to work hard just to survive.
00
Thank you for your help.
I am referring to the story Hack Driver.
In the link you gave ( Go West...) it was given that the speaker was asking the person to go to West as the place they were, were inhabited by idlers and imbeciles.
But in
I am referring to the story Hack Driver.
AlpheccaStarsThe crowds of idlers and imbeciles are in the cities in the east.Yes, I thought the same.
In the link you gave ( Go West...) it was given that the speaker was asking the person to go to West as the place they were, were inhabited by idlers and imbeciles.
But in
00
I suppose you are not familiar with American history. In the first 200 years after Europeans discovered the continent, the settlements were on the east coast. That's where the cities were. The west was vacant land, inhabited by indigenous peoples. It was "open space". Nobody owned the property, so the government passed laws that if you lived on the land, and farmed it, you would own the land. It
00
AlpheccaStarsI suppose you are not familiar with American history.I'm sorry, yes.
Thank you for your detailed explanation, AlpheccaStars.
The time and effort you put in to make us know things like this helps us without limit. I will begin learning things I need to know.
Thank you once again.
0
Related Questions