le love accompanying the lessons she preached and partly because she had too little imagination to conceive of the kind of situations her son might face. Her teaching does not prepare him for the real world. But when he faces certain situations traces of his training still cling to him. His attitude toward prostitutes, for example, is diffident enough that he is inhibited about such a form of release, unlike the other bellhops, and is willing to become involved in Hortense's machinations because he needs to retain some vestige of respectability about his relationships.
Clyde is conscious of his difference from the other bellhops, but regards it more as an impediment than an advantage as, indeed, in his situation it would be. He immediately, for example, notices, because his "education was not a little superior to that of his guide," that Hegglund speaks poorly and knows very little (38). But the irony is, of course, that Hegglund is filled with the kind of knowledge that truly impresses Clyde. Alcohol, prostitutes, stolen cars, spending money
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