The American dream

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Chapter

“The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of Western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call "out there.”

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“He wore a plain gold band, which was the symbol, a quarter-century old, of his marriage to the person he had wished to marry... Bonnie Fox... She had given him four children – a trio of daughters, then a son.”

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[Herb was] “known for his equanimity, his charitableness, and the fact that he paid good wages.”

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“The handsome white house, standing on an ample lawn of groomed Bermuda grass, impressed Holcomb; it was a place people pointed out.”

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“We went around to the kitchen door, and of course it wasn’t locked; the only person who locked doors around there was Mrs. Helm—the family never did.”

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“Nothing can go wrong... Because the plan was Dick’s, and from the first footfall to final silence, flawlessly devised.”

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“Look all over the world and you won’t find friendlier people or fresher air or sweeter drinking water.”

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“All the neighbors are rattlesnakes... It’s the same the whole world over.”

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“After he graduated from high school [Dick] wanted to go on to college. Study to be an engineer. But we couldn’t do it. Never had any money.”

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“Strong character, high courage, hard work – it seemed that none of these were a determining factor in the fates of Tex John’s children. They shared a doom against which virtue was no defence.”

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