What type of man is RJ Bowman in Death of a Traveling Salesman?

R. J. Bowman is an unexceptional man who travels for his living and does a good job of selling the shoes he represents. Over the years, his income has allowed him to be more and more comfortable as he became more and more successful. He has become a quick judge of people and situations and able to adapt to new environments after staying in so many hotels. He is perspective and wonders about the secret he senses his countryside hosts have. He realizes quickly that their secret--the element he never acquired and his heart beats for--is love and marriage.

What is important to R.J. Bowman in "Death of a Traveling Salesman"?

In Eudora Welty's story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," the protagonist, Bowman, spends a lot of time on the road in a pretty boring and thankless job of shoe sales. He is very lonely and has no one that he is close to--no family or wife. When he meets Sonny and his woman, at first he doesn't realize what they have, but by the end of the story, he recognizes that she is pregnant and they have a fruitful, happy marriage. He envies them of this and it amplifies his utter loneliness. For Bowman, what is important to him is having someone to care for and who will care for him. He does not have this, so he steals away into the night, away from these people who have what he does not.