Sometimes he feels the same tenderness toward the sea or the hills that he does toward his rural folk-heroes. An undeniable classism also permeates Heiney's sketch. To suggest that illiterate people use profanity because they know no other way of speaking is simply goddamned wrong-headed. Obviously, cultural influence affects vocabulary and the constant, familiar use of profanity can reflect socio-economic status. But even though Heiney describes this effect as formulaic, his assessment borders on essentialism.
Profanity knows no bounds regarding either class, race, gender, education, or geography.
While it may be a useful pedagogical tool for building a critical understanding of the literary object, it may as easily mar that object if applied too forcefully, and it may be used for political purposes, consciously or unconsciously, to ghettoize certain authors or literary works. Heiney assumes a moralistic standpoint regarding Steinbeck's art, as for example, when he laments Steinbeck's lack of a solution to the problems he raises in The Grapes of Wrath. There is nothing superior, infinite or otherwise, about the rural life in The Pastures of Heaven or The Red Pony which have been more astutely read as, among other things, critiques of the Edenic myth of America as the promised land.