Preview

Travel with Charley Essay. What opinions did John Steinbeck use over the course of his trip across the United States.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
370 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Travel with Charley Essay. What opinions did John Steinbeck use over the course of his trip across the United States.
Travels with Charley Essay

After being on the road for a few months John Steinbeck and his dog Charlie saw much of the U.S. He also gave many opinions and his thoughts on many occasions, such as: mobile homes and how he adored them, Canucks and how they made great soup, and finally the Lonesome Harry episode who was a man cheating on his wife.

The mobile homes he saw were "wonderfully built homes" equipped with everything one needed, such as toilets, washing machines, and stoves. He said he believed people liked these because we as a country are no longer a "country of roots". Meaning we like to move around and see new things, rather than staying in one place and get comfortable. Also you buy one and a few years later when a new model comes out u trade yours in and get the new one.

The Canucks from Canada were in the United States to farm potatoes. After a hard day of work they sat down for dinner and made soup. Steinbeck generalized that just because they were French that they made the best soup in the world. He once said, "what charming people, what flair, how beautiful they are." That was all said based on their smell coming from the soup.

Lonesome Harry was a man who had Steinbecks hotel room, before they had time to clean it John said he would use this room until his was ready. He was in the room snooping around and found many things that showed him what kind of person occupied the room before he. He found a note to his wife trying to say that he has been cheating on her, as well as many other items. He believes that you can learn more about a person by what they have than how they act, an example would be him piecing this mans life together with a few items to learn from.

In a whole after months on the road Steinbeck made many generalizations and expressed his opinions in many occasions. Just a few times where when he was talking about Lonesome Harry and his troubled life, the Canucks who made good soup, and the mobile homes which housed people without

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. What is the author, John Steinbeck, referring to in this quote from his 1939 novel?…

    • 521 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Steinbeck’s writing style gave away the stance he took on America the first few chapters. Steinbeck told the same story in two ways. The chapters alternated with the reality of all families moving westward and the specific struggles of the Joads. As he…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In it, Steinbeck's "voice over" and vivid episodes create a kind of newsreel of a period when times got tough and the tough got going, westward as ever in their very American and indomitable flight to something better. It is that courage and determination "in the presence of this continent" that has made the book a classic of our literature, that gained it in its own day a great success despite its ignorant Okies (with their accents and even their customs all wrong), and its nasty union men (either venal or fanatic), and its sordid…

    • 1702 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Paria1

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Through figurative language and characterization used in chapter one, Steinbeck reveals the characteristics of both George and Lennie. Lennie has a mental disability and is a regular burden on George; he has lost jobs because of his inability to…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Steinbeck shows us how Lennie sees the world, perceives events, and how he reflects on something. His mind uses things he cherishes, to comprehend.…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Of Mice and Men" Dbq

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Steinbeck presents a picture of an optimistic dream that was sought after by many during the Great Depression. This dream was to enjoy a life that was “better and richer and fuller for everyone...” (Document C). Lennie and George’s dream of “owning a farm, which would enable them to sustain themselves and offer them protection,’ (Document D), represents their desire to be self sufficient and secure lacking the struggles and hardships that the typical person who lived during the Great Depression experienced. For example, Lennie, who is mentally challenged, repeatedly begs George to describe their dream to him. This dream encompasses their ability to own their very own home. It would be their choice to leave or stay, dependent of how they felt at the time. This seemed to be a luxury that Lennie and George viewed as for the privileged. This is supported by the quote “What bothers us travelin’ people most is we can’t get no place to stay still,” (Document A) by showing that it was difficult to find a decent place to settle with a secure job.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From 1920 - 1921 many Americans experienced a reduced quality of life, as the majority were suffering from economic and social decline brought about by a severe depression after the end of World War 1. Steinbeck portrays the pain of living in that time in his book 'Of Mice and Men', when families were separated, and lives were destroyed. He introduced the 'American Dream' - the idea of working hard to be able to afford a nice car and support your family, raising your quality of life. Steinbeck invites us to understand how people of this time live their lives, and how having this dream keeps them going.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Grapes of Wrath Essay

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages

    One way Steinbeck produces creative commentary is through the use of different settings. The setting is where the story takes place, and in this story, the setting shifts several times as the family travels across the country to California. The story opens with an illustrious description of the setting. Through the description, “A day went by and the wind increased, steady, unbroken by the gusts. The dust from the roads fluffed up and spread out and fell on the weeds beside the fields, and fell into the fields a little way…” (Steinbeck 2), it reveals a horrible event. It sends the Joads and other tenant farmers into despair and into poverty. With their crops ruined, and their entire world covered in dust, farmers like the Joads cannot make do. From the start, the setting reveals the effects of the Great Depression on society. Droughts and lack of production crippled the farmers and economy. As the story progresses, the family moves to Uncle John’s house, which is very unfit for a large number of people. The quote, “…and the house, a square little box, unpainted and bare, and the barn,…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Steinbeck’s Cannery Row develops characters, but not so far back, not so far forward, simply what was happening in the present. In it’s comedic stature we were able to relax; there wasn’t enough worry to create too much stress other than a single issue. By being in a small town, the number of characters didn’t affect the plot too much by using pages on describing every character. In this book, Steinbeck takes a different approach, he gets right into the plot, developing and introducing characters as the story…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Steinbeck uses characterization to show that loneliness causes people to reveal their feelings through dialogue. When Curley’s wife walks into the farm, she sees Lennie and begins to talk to him. He tries to avoid her and she says “‘I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’” (86). Curley’s wife has no one to talk to, and even Lennie tries to avoid her. Her words reveal that she is very lonely and even though there are so many people around her, nobody wants to talk to her. These words are significant because it shows how lonely she really is and how everyone tries to keep away from her because they know she causes drama and that she is married to Curley. George and Lennie also experience loneliness that they show through dialogue. As George and Lennie walk to the ranch together, George says, ‘“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliness guys in the world. They got no family and…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Of Mice and Men Paper

    • 2637 Words
    • 11 Pages

    John Steinbeck's main purpose of writing this novella is to protest Roosevelt's New Deal and exploit that the damage the Great Depression caused was far from being completely restored. It helps to highlight the “minorities” the New Deal didn't cover upon, such as mentally handicapped people, handicapped people, the elderly, and african american peoples. Steinbeck expresses these faults through his themes: the discrimination of the “weak”characters, the importance of friendship/ the danger of loneliness through in the novella.…

    • 2637 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Steinbeck grew up during the Great depression and looked around him and knew one day all of this would be inspiration for the books he would write later in life. John Steinbeck was an American author who gave a permanent look of what America looked like during the Great depression.…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of Mice and Men

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this classic novella, which established him as one of the world’s most celebrated writers, John Steinbeck tells the story of two friends in 1930’s California. John Steinbeck wrote a naturalistic novel that dealt with three powerful and universal themes, imperative in the latter success of the novel. These themes were the value of dreams and goals, hopes and friendship. The novel also illustrates the importance of moral responsibility, and veracity of social injustice. His book Of Mice and Men is a story of two men living during the Great Depression in California. This is a book of defeated hope and the harsh reality of the “American Dream.” Steinbeck’s naturalistic and unrefined style of writing is helpful because of its ability to connect with his readers. The three strong themes in the novel are important because they depict human life in an interesting way, which can be understood. Of Mice and Men is a universal story because people everywhere can relate to the dreams, pleasures, and struggles of the characters.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Isolation

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Steinbeck shows through his many unique characters and scenarios that isolation is is extremely harmful. Although society has moved past the Great Depression era, loneliness, the fear of seclusion, and the harm isolation causes is all around. In society, those who are different are frowned upon and forced into a life of loneliness and pain. Characters in the novel such as Crooks and Candy are just minor examples of what happens in everyday in the real world. With all this being said it is shown that this novel revolves around the central idea that is so relevant i society today, loneliness is the root of all human…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays