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Lee Sherman
A 77-year-old Cajun man whose family has lived off the land at the Bayou d’Inde for three generations. He is Annette Areno’s husband and Janice Areno’s uncle. Harold was a pipefitter at PPG and a church deacon; after PPG ordered Lee Sherman to dump toxic waste in the swamp, the Bayou d’Inde became horribly polluted, all its wildlife and trees died, and Harold and his wife Annette got cancer. Harold is deeply religious and would like to see stricter environmental restrictions but has no confidence they ever will be; accordingly, he votes Republican because of his faith. Eventually, the government does take limited steps to clean up the Bayou, but construction starts on a giant chemical plant just on the other side of their house. The Arenos strongly believe that they will be saved in the Rapture (the evangelical Christian belief that Jesus will carry away all Christians to heaven at the end of times).
Harold Areno Quotes in Strangers in Their Own Land
The Strangers in Their Own Land quotes below are all either spoken by Harold Areno or refer to Harold Areno. 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 3
Quotes
The Arenos didn't simply remember the good old days of a clean Bayou d'Inde. They remembered against the great forgetting of industry and state government. This institutional forgetting altered the private act of mourning. And not just that. It altered the Arenos’ very identity. They had not left Bayou d'Inde. They were stayers. They didn't want to leave, and even if they had wanted to, they couldn't afford to. The polluting companies had given them no money to enable them to move. And the value of their house had now fallen, for who would want to live on Bayou d'Inde Pass Road, even in a home as beautifully kept up as theirs? The Arenos had become stay-at-home migrants. They had stayed. The environment had left.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Strangers in Their Own Land LitChart as a printable PDF.
Harold Areno Quotes in Strangers in Their Own Land
The Strangers in Their Own Land quotes below are all either spoken by Harold Areno or refer to Harold Areno. 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 3
Quotes
The Arenos didn't simply remember the good old days of a clean Bayou d'Inde. They remembered against the great forgetting of industry and state government. This institutional forgetting altered the private act of mourning. And not just that. It altered the Arenos’ very identity. They had not left Bayou d'Inde. They were stayers. They didn't want to leave, and even if they had wanted to, they couldn't afford to. The polluting companies had given them no money to enable them to move. And the value of their house had now fallen, for who would want to live on Bayou d'Inde Pass Road, even in a home as beautifully kept up as theirs? The Arenos had become stay-at-home migrants. They had stayed. The environment had left.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
