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WebLinks: Contexts for Exploring Visual and Verbal Texts |
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Chapter 4 - Seeing Places |
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Think about how Route 66 compares to our modern interstate system: does the highway still symbolize freedom as did in the heyday of Route 66? Are there any contemporary celebrations of the open road in popular culture?
http://www.historic66.com/
Only fragments of Route 66 survive today. The Interstate highway system made "the mother road" obsolete. Still, bits and pieces of Route 66 and its landmarks remain. This site gives thorough background on Route 66, as well as information on where you can go to see what remains of the old highway.
http://www.roadtripusa.com/route_66/
This is from a very thorough guidebook called Road Trip USA. The section on Route 66 provides a state-by-state breakdown of all the famous (and kitschy) sites along the highway. A great resource if you ever decide to make your own pilgrimage from Illinois to California.
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Steinbeck/grapes.html
This site is a guide through John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, highlighting the westward journey of the Joad family, who travel Route 66 from Oklahoma to the "promised land" of California. Although many people are nostalgic about Route 66 nowadays, during the Great Depression the highway symbolized the misery many "Okies" (a disparaging term used for migrants from Great Plains states) faced. Steinbeck's novel captured that misery and symbolized it in the Joad family.
http://www.woodyguthrie.org/
Woody Guthrie might be considered the poet laureate of Route 66. Many of his songs, especially the album "Dust Bowl Ballades," narrate the movement from migrant farmers to the West along the great road.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/rt66/news/Neb_Pres.htm
Read about some of the efforts the National Park Service is undertaking to preserve Route 66.
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