Annie Proulx, 55 Miles to the Gas Pump

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Annie Proulx

55 Miles to the Gas Pump (Literature To Go, p. 327)

Listen to “55 Miles to the Gas Pump,” read by Campbell Scott.

Reproduced with the permission of Simon & Schuster Audio, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx. Copyright © 1999 by Dead Line, Ltd. (P) 1999 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Considerations for Critical Thinking and Writing

  1. first response. Do you think this story is humorous? Why or why not?

  2. What kinds of assumptions about rural and urban life are made in the story? To what extent does Proulx challenge or endorse conventional views of rural and urban values?

  3. Consider whether Mr. and Mrs. Croom are round, flat, or stock characters.

  4. Is there a resolution to the conflict(s) in the plot?

  5. How important is the setting?

  6. Write a sentence that expresses your reading of the theme.

  7. Describe the style and tone of each paragraph. How do they contribute to the theme?

  8. creative response. Substitute Proulx’s title and final paragraph with your own. How do these changes affect your interpretation of the entire work?

Connections to Other Selections

  1. Despite their brevity, how do “55 Miles to the Gas Pump” and Raymond Carver’s “Popular Mechanics” (p. 228) manage to create compelling fictional worlds?

  2. Compare Proulx’s humorous treatment of the West to Stephen Crane’s in “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” (p. 198).

  3. Consider the use of irony in Proulx’s story and in Mark Twain’s “The Story of the Good Little Boy” (p. 329). Explain why you find the endings of the stories similar or different in tone.