Explication

Scene: Chapter 5, page 109, “He thought about New Orleans…” to page 110, “…he had done the right thing.” (or maybe longer if more content is needed)

• “He’d [Solon] taken his earnings from the robberies and bought hisself a bus ticket and slept so sound to the music of the wheels…he thought about himself asleep on that Greyhound, and the thought of it was so sweet it almost made him cry.”
  • Perhaps Solon finds comfort in having a place to go; the bus is taking him somewhere and so he is able to sleep soundly
  • Maybe he feels better when he has some amount of luxury or power. In this case he is able to ride on a bus, which gives him feelings of sweetness and love and almost makes him cry. Later in the book we see that when he has money, Dexter’s El Camino, and his Luger, Solon is in a better mood–he went from wanting to kill his entire family to thinking that nobody had to die after all.
  • Does “the music of the wheels” mean anything?
• “It was like he was outside of himself, watching Solon Gregg fall asleep in his seat…it didn’t seem possible that he was who he was, the robber and killer and wife beater.”
•  ”Confession makes the heart grow fonder, as his crazy wife used to say.”
  • Fond-feeling love, affection, or preference for somebody or something
  • What is the meaning of the sentence; why was it used?

 Obviously my analysis is weak and lacking details. I have hardly covered any of the passage but I do not have any more time right now. I’ll have to finish later today.