His attempt to move his mother to California

Duluoz's attempt to relocate his mother to California, in hopes of improving her situation, does not have the ideal outcome. Duluoz returns from his travels, hoping to settle down. He decides to provide his mother with her own home in California. Their methods of travel, are not ideal, however, as they are forced to take a bus due to financial constraints. Throughout the journey to California, Duluoz continually laments his mother's poverty. He feels that what he is doing is going to help her. Again he is using travel to try to improve a situation. They arrive in California but stay only a few weeks because his mother prefers the east coast, regardless of her poverty there. They move back and Duluoz buys her a low-rent apartment. This attempt to better the situation of his mother through travel shows the hope that the road is able to provide for the poor. It also, however, shows that travel is not always the solution to a problem for the poor, as his mother dislikes California. Overall, it shows the idealism that the poor hold for the road, but also the fact that this idealism does not alway translate to reality.

Back to Will's Research