Flashback to Steinbeck

In Travels with Charley, Steinbeck sets out to rediscover America and himself.  Unfortunately for Steinbeck the America he finds is one that is fraught with uncertainty and, for him, terror. 

Steinbeck states that he wants to go on this journey, incognito, because he feels out of step with what is happening in the “real” America.  However, it is easy to see that Steinbeck’s recent illness combined with his age has probably made him feel as if his days are numbered.  Thus, Steinbeck is probably taking this trip as his last “hurrah” in order to not only to assert his independence as a capable man (to himself and his wife) but also to try to recapture the sense of wonder that he once had with the American landscape and its people.  Steinbeck alludes to this when he recounts how as an American writer writing about American he feels out of touch, and in the next chapter, talks about how his wife married “a man and not a baby”.

The trip, however, does not bring Steinbeck any comfort, really.  Steinbeck’s hope that he would reconnect with the land and its people, is quickly extinguished as he confronts an America that he does not really recognize or understand. Steinbeck’s disconnection and unhappiness with the “new” modern world is apparent in his descriptions of his surroundings.  

For example, within the first few hours of setting out on his trip, he sees a submarine emerge from the water, and he right away links it to death and destruction when he states “submarines are armed with mass murder, our silly, only way of deterring mass murder.” (21)  Further on, when he decides to spend a night in a motel, and is faced with a room that has plastic covered cups and a sanitized bathroom seat, Steinbeck rants about how “Everyone is trying to protect me and it was horrible.” (47)  And, his perspective of the people he meets is also pretty dismal, overanalyzing people’s, apparently, unhappy personalities 

Steinbeck’s attitude towards America, except for a couple of occurances, is pretty dismal all the way to the end of the book.  Steinbeck’s idea that America is no longer at its prime and that it has become destructive place to live is strengthened by his discussions with the people he meets.  Nowhere is this more blatantly obvious than when Steinbeck recounts how a friend of his sadly noted before Steinbeck’s trip that “this used to be a nation of giants” (168), which Steinbeck pretty much agrees with as he remembers everyone he met during his trip. 

 At the end of his trip, it is apparent that Steinbeck sees America, not as a wasteland exactly, but as a country whose glory days are behind her.  Or, is this something that Steinbeck needs to believe in, as a gentleman past his prime, and facing his demise? 

Now, having talked about Steinbeck’s doom and gloom attitude, don’t misunderstand me, I liked the book.  Steinbeck’s, this world has gone to shit attitude (I hope I can say that, if not, sorry), had me laughing.  It reminds of the time I worked at a commissary which was located within a high-rise apartment building full of retirees.  Jesus, the shit they say! (Sorry) Everyday, I would hear about how “in the good ole’ days, this and that would happen…”  Personally, I loved to talk to them because one, I love to talk, and two, because it gave me this inside look at the older generation (I was in my teens).  I met so many Steinbeck-like personalities that when I read this book I felt really connected to Steinbeck, in a –there goes my grumpy old grandpa blabbing again—way.