How would you interpret these two sentences?
But that was false cheer, I knew better. Nothing was coming up by then, no gumption rising anywhere without a resolution promptly passed to cut it down. The Woman’s Club had become a drear business, their sole concern to oppose waywardness: a City Council man or a school history book. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass no good for children, they set a bad example.It’s the same everywhere now, look at faces. In the luncheonettes on Charlotte you’ll see people lined up with a haint upon them, sore afraid of not being as American as the next one. What’s the matter, sir, you look as though you’ve seen a Communist! The word itself could get a child’s mouth washed with soap. It used to be in the Geographics, I learned the word as a child, “Every-Day Life in the Ukraine” and so forth. But the newspapers and magazines have had their mouths washed with soap too. Even today, years after Mr. Shepherd’s hearing. It would still proceed just about as it did then. People have no more vinegar in them. You can resign from the Woman’s Club, but the world is all, you can’t just stop attending.How would you interpret these two sentences?
1# “It would still proceed just about as it did then.” What do you think the word “it” refers to? Does it refer to the fact that the newspapers and magazines have had their mouths washed with soap?
2# “People have no more vinegar in them.” How would you interpret the word “vinegar” here?
Thanks. And this excerpt is taken from The Lacuna by Kingsolver.

Question

How would you interpret these two sentences?
But that was false cheer, I knew better. Nothing was coming up by then, no gumption rising anywhere without a resolution promptly passed to cut it down. The Woman’s Club had become a drear business, their sole concern to oppose waywardness: a City Council man or a school history book. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass no good for children, they set a bad example.It’s the same everywhere now, look at faces. In the luncheonettes on Charlotte you’ll see people lined up with a haint upon them, sore afraid of not being as American as the next one. What’s the matter, sir, you look as though you’ve seen a Communist! The word itself could get a child’s mouth washed with soap. It used to be in the Geographics, I learned the word as a child, “Every-Day Life in the Ukraine” and so forth. But the newspapers and magazines have had their mouths washed with soap too. Even today, years after Mr. Shepherd’s hearing. It would still proceed just about as it did then. People have no more vinegar in them. You can resign from the Woman’s Club, but the world is all, you can’t just stop attending.How would you interpret these two sentences?
1# “It would still proceed just about as it did then.” What do you think the word “it” refers to? Does it refer to the fact that the newspapers and magazines have had their mouths washed with soap?
2# “People have no more vinegar in them.” How would you interpret the word “vinegar” here?
Thanks. And this excerpt is taken from The Lacuna by Kingsolver.

Answer

This language resembles the way people speak, with ideas left out, leaving it to the listener to connect the dots.

"It" refers to a hypothetical hearing, similar to Shepherd's but conducted today... or to the way the same hearing would have proceeded if it had taken place today instead of when it did.

"Vinegar" can mean a kind of toughness and integrity--a willingness to do things that other people may regard as sour, like vinegar. It's old-fashioned. During the Second World War, General Joseph Stilwell had the nickname "Vinegar Joe," and it was intended as a kind of compliment.

The speaker means that people are not willing to speak out against the opinions of their community.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, it was often said that people in the United States had become "conformists," thinking whatever their neighbors thought and saying whatever their neighbors said.