Memory

From the time that Mero leaves his family's ranch in 1936, he is determined to put the past behind him, and he chooses not to return "to see the old man and Rollo, bankrupt and ruined, because he knew they were." He makes many attempts to forget his past, beginning with his eating habits. In the train station on his way out of town in 1936, he cannot eat a steak. He cuts into it and sees "the blood spread across the white plate." He equates the bloody meat with "the beast, mouth agape in mute bawling," an image of the cattle he used to slaughter. As a result, he becomes a vegetarian. He also moves to Massachusetts, serves in World War II, gets married several times, makes many successful investments, and becomes a local politician. Ultimately, however, these attempts to bury the past do not succeed. When he begins...