Steinbeck's, Travels with Charley

Hi guys! I know this is super late but I had a terrible semester with my class load, family responsibilities, and health issues. I'm fortunate and thankful to Professor Urrea whose compassion and generosity has made it possible to not drop this course. I'll be posting all my blogs to our readings before the end of next week. Thanks all!

Travels with Charley

My opinion of John Steinbeck and his novel, "Travels with Charley", is affected by what genre his novel was initially categorized as. If it was non-fiction, as he claimed, then, I believe Steinbeck can be found guilty of deception and guilty of making up history, since history can be learned through non-fiction. The difference between non-fiction and fiction literature is that non-fiction is the form of a narrative that relates a story of being factual and true, while fiction is a narrative that relates a story of being imaginary and made up. Steinbeck’s novel writes about his journey of finding the true people of America during the 60’s, of what they believed and of what they felt about regarding the events that were occurring in the New America during that time. I feel that, if, Steinbeck had shared with the public what genre he was writing, then his stories would not make a difference to me regarding his character. However, the exclusion of this minute detail leads me to believe that he didn’t see the public as worthy probably because he had been distant from the public because of his health issues and age. It doesn’t make a difference regarding the story itself, being good or bad, but it makes a huge difference in the sense of what he wants us to believe regarding the opinions of Americans throughout the nation, of which he portrayed as true. If he lied about his journey, how can we believe anything else, like his claims of the interviews that he had with his characters. Steinbeck is a good writer but I believe that his illness and age factored into his deception of misleading the general public, and should be forgiven. He should continue to go down in history as a positive and great writer, but his novel should be classified in the correct genre.