The correct answer is the second option: They depict the poverty and lifelessness of the town. Willian Least Heat-Monn´s Blue Highway is an autobiographical travel book in which he narrates his visits to unknown, small forgotten towns in rural areas of U.S.A., as well as his conversations with people who live in those towns. In this excerpt, the person with whom he is talking tells about a town in which they lack a doctor, what shows evident poverty and lifelessness, part of the central idea of the book.
