Question

Read the excerpt from “The Railroad Earth.”

oldtimers of the telegraph wired wood Frisco in the fog gray top time sitting in their brown sunk sea and will be there when this afternoon my face flushed from the sun, which at eight'll flame out and make sunbaths for us at Redwood, they'll still be here the color of paste in the green underworld and still reading the same editorial over again and wont understand where I've been or what for or what.——I have to get out of there or suffocate, out of Third street or become a worm

Which word best describes the narrator’s attitude toward the old-timers in the lobby?
resentment
envy
pity
distrust

Answer 1

resentment

The narrator describes them in contemptuous, dehumanizing terms ("color of paste," "brown sunk sea"), complains they'll "still be here" and "won't understand," and insists "I have to get out... or become a worm," showing anger and a desire to escape rather than pity, envy, or distrust.