The Potential Value of Characters in Travel Writing

Within William Least Heat-Moon’s “Blue Highways,” the characters that Heat-Moon encounters play a large role within the author’s travelogue. The different characters that he encounters during his journey function to tie in his personal experiences in travel to the places themselves. By featuring these characters and their unique accents within the dialogue, it gives the readers a better sense of what these places are like through the possible insights that are given as to what daily life might be like in these locations in which he travels to. This provides a contrast to Heat-Moon’s own thoughts, attitudes, and personal experiences that he details within the book by giving a glimpse into the lives of others. In turn, this helps contribute to the realism of his travelogue, as it makes the reader see how different life is between these places that he travels to during his narrative through his great focus on these characters. The details and dialogue that he shares is able to help the reader make connections with these places through the people as much as he does from the physical place. This contributes to the realism by aiding in the establishment of each place’s uniqueness within his own unique travel experiences. I find that an example of this can be seen through Heat-Moon’s interaction with the man Paul “DeePaul” Duhon in Lafayette. In this interaction, the narrator discovers “DeePaul’s” love for flying kites and desire to set Guinness World Record for doing so. On this, “DeePaul” states according to Heat-Moon “My kites day fly for time in da air, not how high. Someday I want people to be rememberin’ Duhon. I want ‘Duhon’ wrote down” (Heat-Moon 114). From this, we not only gain insight to the character “DeePaul” and what he does in his life, but we also are allowed a glimpse into the uniqueness of the place through Heat-Moon’s showing of the dialect through how he wrote the dialogue. Although the life that people have in these places are as unique as each place he visits, quotes like this add to the realism by making the characters that he encounters relatable, showing that despite the differences that may be had, everyone is still the same. Due to how authentic the interactions like this feel, it greatly adds to the authority that the author has due to how realistic they are portrayed. For this reason, I believe the characters that Heat-Moon encounters during his travelogue play a large role in his narrative focus as it adds greatly to the realism of his travels.