A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Image
Gary Snyder might not be as well-known as Allen Ginsberg or Jack Kerouac. However, his critique on the order of the world is just as important as the works of the other Beat Poets. In his poems, specifically “Night Highway Ninety-Nine,” Snyder depicts how objects, people, and places of the Pacific Northwest are all uniquely isolated from society.
“Too cold and rainy to go out on the Sound
Sitting in Ferndale drinking coffee
Baxter in black, been to a funeral…” (Snyder 293)
‘Baxter in black’ appears to be a reference to the cowboy poet Baxter Black. However, it also adds to the somber tone of the poem. The person being mourned is now six feet under away from the rest of the world. And instead of getting to go outside and appreciate the nature of the Sound, the speaker and Baxter are stuck inside drinking coffee to give themselves artificial energy.
Another image that is framed for us can be seen in the following quote:
“ — foggy morning in Newport
housetrailers
under the fir” (Snyder 299)
Snyder is a mastermind at using imagery. You can imagine yourself in the place of the narrator, feeling the cool damp fog, smelling the fir trees. Instead of framing the road trip as an outlet to appreciate the nature and landscape, we are shown run-down shacks and house trailers in a climate that can only be described as dreary. America at the time was mired in Vietnam, and the working class was suffering. Snyder used his poem to depict the feelings of isolation that many felt. Being on the road, an important motif in the poem, is a testament to how you can search for something better, but never find it.
The end of the poem continues to enforce the feeling of everyone and everywhere being mere shrapnel, stating
“SAN FRANCISCO
NO
body
gives a shit
man
who you are or
whats your car
there IS no
ninety-nine.” (Snyder 304)
‘San Francisco / no’ being capitalized demonstrates frustration in the speaker, that they still have not found companionship. No matter where you go, no one cares who you are or what you own. The world will continue to be in shambles, and Highway Ninety-Nine is just a symbol of the fact that we will never reach utopia.
It is also important to note that the physical appearance of the poem has multiple meanings. First off, it reflects the fragmented state that society is in at the time Snyder is writing. The form can also be a reference to how if one is writing in a car on the road, it would not be a neat or level structure.
Ironically, most of Highway 99 has now been replaced by Interstate 5. If Snyder saw it today, he might look at the interstate and simply say “I told you so.”
Hawley, Dustin. Picture of Freeway. J.D Power, 20 Dec. 2022. https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/freeway-vs-highway-difference
Snyder, Gary. “Night Highway Ninety-Nine.” The Portable Beat Reader, edited by Ann Charters, Penguin Books, 1992, pp. 293-304.
