Question

On the floor’s my shoes, big lumberboot flopjack workshoes to colomp over rockbed with and not turn the ankle——solidity shoes that when you put them on, yokewise, you know you’re working now and so for same reason shoes not be worn for any reason like joys of restaurant and shows.——Night-before shoes are on the floor beside the clunkershoes a pair of blue canvas shoes . . . I’d trod soft as ghost the indented hill sidewalks of Ah Me Frisco in the glitter night.

—“The Railroad Earth,” Jack Kerouac

The sound of the first section supports which of the following ideas? Check all that apply.

hard work

fear

challenge

difficulty

Answer 1

Select: hard work; difficulty.

Explanation: The heavy, onomatopoeic words (lumberboot, flopjack, colomp, clunkershoes) and the line “you know you’re working now” emphasize labor and effort, implying difficulty. There’s no language suggesting fear, and “challenge” isn’t directly invoked beyond the sense of effort/difficulty.