Was Roger a Hippie?

Was Roger a hippie? Not if you ask me. He was too boxed in by his middle-class upbringing for that; too innocent, too sheltered, too unexposed. I guess this is part of his charm; why people might identify with him as Mr. Whitebread. He had no opinion or even much knowledge about the Vietnam War while scads of people were vocally putting it down. Remember, he hadn’t been anywhere of note in seventeen years, and wasn’t a reader. He was fresh out of the can, kind of pure and unadulterated. His hair was on the short side. He wasn’t allowed to wear bell-bottomed trousers. It stands to reason that if Roger’s parents let him go on the trip, they should have been ultra-liberal, mind-expansion adventurers.  They weren’t. They were conservative, vote-for-Eisenhower, we-don’t-mix ‘n mingle people. It sounds like a contradiction, though it’s obvious Roger picks up some chomps as the trip progresses, while the parents keep their heads in the sand. I think it’s true when Roger explains on page 26, “It was easy for me to take up and go, because I would have gone whether my parents gave me permission or not.” I think my sheer audacity put my parents in a mood of resignation and hoping for the best.