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Cyprian Ukwende
Kilgore Trout hitches a ride out of New York City with the truck driver, who is “hauling seventy-eight thousand pounds of Spanish olives.” The truck driver used to be an avid hunter and fisherman, but now the state of polluted forests and streams “breaks his heart.” Ironically, the truck driver contributes to that heartbreaking pollution as he drives back and forth across the county delivering consumer goods in a state-of-the-art rig powered by a “three hundred and twenty-four horsepower Cummins Diesel engine.” The truck driver metaphorically represents those in American society who lament environmental pollution but do nothing to help, and worse, actively contribute to the problem.
The Truck Driver Quotes in Breakfast of Champions
The Breakfast of Champions quotes below are all either spoken by The Truck Driver or refer to The Truck Driver. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 10
Quotes
[The truck driver] had a point. The planet was being destroyed by manufacturing processes, and what was being manufactured was lousy, by and large.
Then Trout made a good point, too. “Well,” he said, “I used to be a conservationist. I used to weep and wail about people shooting bald eagles with automatic shotguns from helicopters and all that, but I gave it up. There’s a river in Cleveland which is so polluted that it catches fire about once a year. That used to make me sick, but I laugh about it now. When some tanker accidently dumps its load in the ocean, and kills millions of birds and billions of fish, I say, ‘More power to Standard Oil,’ or whoever it was that dumped it.” Trout raised his arms in celebration. “‘Up your ass with Mobil gas,’” he said.
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Chapter 14
Quotes
“That was the last story I ever read,” said the driver. “My God—that must be all of fifteen years ago. The story was about another planet. It was a crazy story. They had museums full of paintings all over the place, and the government used a kind of roulette wheel to decide what to put in the museums, and what to throw out.”
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The Truck Driver Quotes in Breakfast of Champions
The Breakfast of Champions quotes below are all either spoken by The Truck Driver or refer to The Truck Driver. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 10
Quotes
[The truck driver] had a point. The planet was being destroyed by manufacturing processes, and what was being manufactured was lousy, by and large.
Then Trout made a good point, too. “Well,” he said, “I used to be a conservationist. I used to weep and wail about people shooting bald eagles with automatic shotguns from helicopters and all that, but I gave it up. There’s a river in Cleveland which is so polluted that it catches fire about once a year. That used to make me sick, but I laugh about it now. When some tanker accidently dumps its load in the ocean, and kills millions of birds and billions of fish, I say, ‘More power to Standard Oil,’ or whoever it was that dumped it.” Trout raised his arms in celebration. “‘Up your ass with Mobil gas,’” he said.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14
Quotes
“That was the last story I ever read,” said the driver. “My God—that must be all of fifteen years ago. The story was about another planet. It was a crazy story. They had museums full of paintings all over the place, and the government used a kind of roulette wheel to decide what to put in the museums, and what to throw out.”
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
