Isolation and Rural Life
The title of Annie Proulx’s “55 Miles to the Gas Pump” introduces the story’s primary theme: the isolation of rural life and the impact it has on people’s sanity. In this three-paragraph work of microfiction, Rancher Croom kills himself by jumping from a cliff, and then his wife, Mrs. Croom, discovers the bodies of dead women—his victims and “paramours”—in their attic. By emphasizing the couple’s solitude and the absence of law and society in…
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Violence, Pleasure, and Desire
Violence and destruction pervade “55 Miles to the Gas Pump,” from major events (such as Rancher Croom’s suicide) to atmospheric details, like the descriptions of “splintery boards.” Throughout the story, however, Proulx associates violence more with pleasure than with pain or horror—her descriptions of Rancher Croom’s murder victims are sensual, Rancher Croom’s suicide seems almost joyful, and, of course, the story’s final line suggests that violence is a kind of “fun.” Proulx’s evocative descriptions…
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Good, Evil, and Morality
“55 Miles to the Gas Pump” is a loose retelling of the folktale “Bluebeard,” which begins when the heroine’s new husband forbids her to enter a certain room in his house. While he’s away, she enters the forbidden room and discovers the mutilated corpses of his previous six wives, after which she or one of her relatives (depending on the tale) usually kills him. Though “55 Miles to the Gas Pump” preserves the format of…
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