The Southern Thruway by Julio Cortázar
"The Southern Thruway" is a short story by Argentine author Julio Cortázar that explores themes of community, isolation, and the human condition through the lens of a traffic jam on a highway returning to Paris from southern France. The narrative begins with a seemingly mundane traffic congestion, where drivers and passengers initially express their frustration. However, as time drags on, a sense of camaraderie develops among a small group of stranded motorists, leading them to form a makeshift community. They share resources, establish leadership, and adapt to their increasingly desperate circumstances as days turn into weeks.
Cortázar delves into the psychological and social dynamics of this group as they contend with the hostile environment around them, including local farmers and the challenges of survival. The story poignantly contrasts the warmth of shared human experience and connection against the coldness of modern urban life. As the traffic resumes and the drivers disperse, the engineer reflects on the ephemeral nature of these bonds and the abrupt return to anonymity, highlighting a deeper commentary on the alienation pervasive in contemporary society. "The Southern Thruway" captures the tension between the desire for connection and the inevitability of separation, inviting readers to ponder the complexities of human relationships amid the chaos of modern life.
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The Southern Thruway by Julio Cortázar
First published: "La autopista del sur," 1966 (English translation, 1973)
Type of plot: Fantasy
Time of work: About 1966
Locale: The main highway connecting southern France with Paris
Principal Characters:
An engineer , who is in a Peugeot 404A young woman , who is in a DauphineTwo nuns , who are in a 2CVA pale man , who is driving a Caravelle and who commits suicideA couple , andA little girl , who are in a Peugeot 203Two boys , who are in a SimcaTwo men , andA boy , who are in 4 TaunusAn elderly couple , who are in an ID CitroenA farm couple , who are in an ArianeA soldier , andHis young wife , who are in a VolkswagenA traveling salesperson , who is in a DKWAn older woman , who is in a BeaulieuA fat man , who is driving a Floride and who desertsAn American tourist , who is in a DeSotoBlack-market dealers , who are in a Ford Mercury and a Porsche
The Story
"The Southern Thruway" begins with a traffic jam on the main highway back to Paris from southern France, on a summer Sunday afternoon. It seems to be a perfectly ordinary occurrence as cars slow to a crawl, stop, and start up again. The drivers and passengers look irritably at their watches and begin to exchange comments with those in neighboring cars. As the traffic inches along in increasingly infrequent moves forward, the same group of cars stays together and their occupants gradually become acquainted. Although written in the third person, the story focuses on the experiences and thoughts of an engineer in a Peugeot 404.
Rumors circulate as to the cause of the traffic jam:
No one doubted that a serious accident had taken place in the area, which could be the only explanation for such an incredible delay. And with that, the government, taxes, road conditions, one topic after another, three yards, another commonplace, five yards, a sententious phrase or a restrained curse.
The drivers stay in or near their cars, sweltering in the sun, waiting for the police to dissolve the bottleneck, impatient to move along and get to Paris. The cars continue to move ahead as a group, their drivers chatting to pass the time as they suffer "the dejection of again going from first to neutral, brake, hand brake, stop, and the same thing time and time again."
By the time night falls, the new rumors brought by "strangers" to their group seem remote and unbelievable. The group share food and drink; surreptitiously, they relieve themselves by the roadside. Time begins to blur; "there was so little to do that the hours began to blend together, becoming one in the memory."
The next day, they advance a few yards and continue to hope that the road will soon be clear. Again a stranger brings them hopeful news, but then they realize the "the stranger had taken advantage of the group's happiness to ask for and get an orange," and they become wary and more conscious of their cohesiveness as a group. The cars beyond their primitive commune are also forming themselves into survival units. Those in the group pool their food and water, choose a leader, and send out exploratory parties to seek supplies and information.
The members of the group adapt to their situation. Thefts of communal supplies are punished, care for the children and the ailing is arranged, and even a suicide (the strained man in the Caravelle) is taken in stride and the body sealed into the Caravelle's trunk with glue and Scotch tape. Days go by and the weather turns cold. Inexplicably, the farmers who live near the highway are hostile. They beat and threaten anyone who trespasses, and they refuse to sell food. "It was enough to step out of the thruway's boundaries for stones to come raining in from somewhere. In the middle of the night, someone threw a sickle that hit the top of the DKW and fell beside the Dauphine."
As winter sets in, new ingenuities are necessary. A Ford Mercury and a Porsche sell supplies, at a price, and people make warm clothes out of seat covers, fear for the lives of their car batteries, and huddle together. They help one another through times of desperation and illness. A doctor trudges through the snow to visit the sick. There is happiness in survival, in the security of repeated routines, and in the discreet alliances managed by many of them, including the engineer and the girl in the Dauphine.
With the coming of mild spring days, more sociable relationships with neighbors are restored. Human rhythms accord with the changing seasons: The girl in the Dauphine tells the engineer she is pregnant, and the old lady in the ID dies. Suddenly, "when nobody expected it anymore," traffic begins to move again, slowly at first and then faster. Yearning for Paris—for hot water and clean sheets and white wine—the drivers advance eagerly, but when the engineer looks over into the next lane, the Dauphine is no longer beside him. Trapped in the flow of various traffic lanes, the members of the commune are separated. The group is irrevocably dispersed as the cars move faster and faster, and the engineer realizes sadly that "the everyday meetings would never take place again, the few rituals, and war councils in Taunus's car, Dauphine's caresses in the quiet of night, the children's laughter as they played with their little cars, the nun's face as she said her rosary." The engineer tries to stop and find his friends, but it is impossible as the cars go racing along. He cannot believe that the simple communal joys are left behind as they rush along "at fifty-five miles an hour toward the lights that kept growing, not knowing why all this hurry, why this mad race in the night among unknown cars, where no one knew anything about the others, where everyone looked straight ahead, only ahead."