Intertextuality

I think that the intertextuality in Blue Highways is very interesting. Though I realize this is not a very original example, I would like to talk about how I came to understand its significance. The Whitman quotes do a couple of things for the story, and I did not notice them until we talked about intertextuality in class.

Quoting Whitman does add an element of poetry to the book. To be honest, Whitman's words are more beautiful than those of Least Heat-Moon. But also, quoting a poet like Whitman conjures up feelings of freedom and experiencing the unseen parts of the country. This is done by the choice of quotes that are descriptions of Whitman's own experiances. I think that the best example of this is when Least Heat-Moon describes the worn walking paths next to the roads (page 52). By citing Whitman's experience of the same thing, the setting is more believable, better described, and just more authentic.

The quotes also add another characteristic to Least Heat-Moon. In the first paragraph of the book, we learn the he is a recently fired English teacher at a college. By quoting Whitman throughout the book, his character is solidified as a lover of literature. When he point out that "Whitman said it this way," or "said it best," the reader can see the english professor in him.