Archibald Higbie
“I lothed you, Spoon River, I tried to rise above you,
I was ashamed of you. I despised you
As the place of my nativity”
Archibald explicitly states what many residents of Spoon River have been thinking, that they just want to leave the place. Searcy Foote and Mickey M’Grew talked about college and how they saved up the money, or attempted to, so that they could go on and have a life beyond Spoon River. The small community where everyone knew something about everyone elses life was not what any of those who hoped to leave were looking for. It got to the point where Archibald was ashamed of the place where he grew up because it brought him nothing. He thought that if he were to change where he was born, he would have had more oppurtunities and been a different person who wouldn’t have to have been reminded of where he came from, and been embarrassed about it.
Archibald sought a more exciting life beyond the boring day-to-day gossip and small town of Spoon River.
“There was no culture, you know, in Spoon River,
And I burned with shame and held my peace”
This is why so many residents travel to France and Spain and other countries, something we were trying to figure out in the begining. They want more than they already have and have to go somewhere with such high expecatations. These places they travel to don’t live up to the reputations they’ve given them, but are still sometimes better than Spoon River.
