Summary

“The Ballad of Paul Nonetheless” is related from a third-person narrator who describes Paul as the waits at the O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Paul sees a beautiful woman wearing red Puma sneakers. He finds the shoes enhance the woman he sees, so he waves but is ignored. Paul knows the woman must be bored of being hit on all the time. He considers how Americans consider themselves to be very different, but are actually very similar because they know the words to the same pop songs. Songs remain as fixed in the minds of each generation as do the important moments of the generations, he believes. Paul has a very positive view of Americans, knowing they are decent and good people who on the whole are able to get past things like race and religion...