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Cyprian Ukwende
Kilgore Trout hitches a ride out of New York City with the truck driver, who is “hauling seventy-eight thousand pounds of Spanish olives.” The truck driver used to be an avid hunter and fisherman, but now the state of polluted forests and streams “breaks his heart.” Ironically, the truck driver contributes to that heartbreaking pollution as he drives back and forth across the county delivering consumer goods in a state-of-the-art rig powered by a “three hundred and twenty-four horsepower Cummins Diesel engine.” The truck driver metaphorically represents those in American society who lament environmental pollution but do nothing to help, and worse, actively contribute to the problem.
The Truck Driver Quotes in Breakfast of Champions
The Breakfast of Champions quotes below are all either spoken by The Truck Driver or refer to The Truck Driver. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 10 Quotes
[The truck driver] had a point. The planet was being destroyed by manufacturing processes, and what was being manufactured was lousy, by and large.
Then Trout made a good point, too. “Well,” he said, “I used to be a conservationist. I used to weep and wail about people shooting bald eagles with automatic shotguns from helicopters and all that, but I gave it up. There’s a river in Cleveland which is so polluted that it catches fire about once a year. That used to make me sick, but I laugh about it now. When some tanker accidently dumps its load in the ocean, and kills millions of birds and billions of fish, I say, ‘More power to Standard Oil,’ or whoever it was that dumped it.” Trout raised his arms in celebration. “‘Up your ass with Mobil gas,’” he said.
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Here, Kilgore hitches a ride with a truck driver on his way to Midland City. The driver used to be an avid hunter and fisherman, but the pollution from numerous factories has wrecked the forests and streams. With this quote, Vonnegut laments the deteriorated state of the environment and emphatically implies that it isn’t worth it. Manufacturing processes have taken over the country with their goods and pollution, and to make matters worse, the products they produce aren’t even that good. Kilgore’s claim that he “used to be a conservationist” implies that while he did care about the environment at Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus
Chapter 14 Quotes
“That was the last story I ever read,” said the driver. “My God—that must be all of fifteen years ago. The story was about another planet. It was a crazy story. They had museums full of paintings all over the place, and the government used a kind of roulette wheel to decide what to put in the museums, and what to throw out.”
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Here, the truck driver that has picked up Kilgore tells him about a strange story he read years ago in jail. The story, which happens to have been written by Kilgore himself, highlights the subjectivity of art. The paintings that are selected to hang in the museum via the wheel have nothing to do with talent, beauty, or any kind of deeper meaning—they are selected and given value in a completely random way. The driver’s description of the story as “crazy” is certainly fitting. Determining which pieces of art are worth keeping and displaying simply by spinning a wheel is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad
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The Truck Driver Character Timeline in Breakfast of Champions
The timeline below shows where the character The Truck Driver appears in Breakfast of Champions. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 10
After leaving the police station, Kilgore gets a ride with a truck driver “hauling seventy-eight thousand pounds of Spanish olives.” The driver, “who is white,” tells Kilgore that...
(full context)
The truck driver “has a point,” Vonnegut writes. “The planet is being destroyed by manufacturing processes, and what...
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Kilgore tells the truck driver that “God isn’t any conservationist,” which would make anybody who tries to be one “sacrilegious.”...
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Chapter 12
Meanwhile, Kilgore is still riding with the truck driver just outside Philadelphia. Kilgore has forgotten the trucker’s name, but he asks him about his...
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The truck driver asks Kilgore if he is married. “Three times,” Kilgore answers. Kilgore tells the driver about...
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Chapter 14
The truck driver and Kilgore make their way into West Virginia, which has been destroyed by coal mining....
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The truck driver stops at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant and Kilgore goes inside for a cup of coffee....
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Back on the road, the truck driver asks Kilgore why he wants to go to Midland City. Kilgore lies and tells him...
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“Anyway,” the truck driver says, “they had so many books in Libertyville, they used books for toilet paper in...
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...and the government official responsible for spinning the wheel commits suicide. Kilgore doesn’t tell the truck driver that he is the author of his toilet paper, and they drive on in silence.
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