55 Miles to the Gas Pump Themes

The title of Annie Proulx’s “55 Miles to the Gas Pump” introduces the story’s primary theme: the isolation of rural life and the impact it has on people’s sanity. In this three-paragraph work of microfiction, Rancher Croom kills himself by jumping from a cliff, and then his wife, Mrs. Croom, discovers the bodies of dead women—his victims and “paramours”—in their attic. By emphasizing the couple’s solitude and the absence of law and society in…

Violence and destruction pervade “55 Miles to the Gas Pump,” from major events (such as Rancher Croom’s suicide) to atmospheric details, like the descriptions of “splintery boards.” Throughout the story, however, Proulx associates violence more with pleasure than with pain or horror—her descriptions of Rancher Croom’s murder victims are sensual, Rancher Croom’s suicide seems almost joyful, and, of course, the story’s final line suggests that violence is a kind of “fun.” Proulx’s evocative descriptions…