Literature Resource Guide: Travels with Charley, The Fourth of July, The Road Not Taken, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

80 vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical context, authors, literary devices, and concepts from the literature resource guide.

John Steinbeck

American author (1902–1968) known for The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and Travels with Charley, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck's 1939 masterpiece journey narrative about migrant workers, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940.

Sea of Cortez

A 1941 memoir by John Steinbeck detailing his trip with Ed Ricketts to collect marine specimens in the Gulf of California.

Ed Ricketts

Marine biologist and lifelong friend of John Steinbeck who accompanied him on a specimen-collecting trip in the Gulf of California.

A Russian Journal

John Steinbeck's 1948 travel memoir documenting his journey through the postwar Soviet Union with photographer Robert Capa.

Robert Capa

Photographer who traveled with John Steinbeck through the postwar Soviet Union for A Russian Journal.

Travels with Charley

John Steinbeck's 1962 memoir documenting a 10,000-mile cross-country road trip across thirty-four states with his poodle.

Bindlestiffs

Itinerant male workers who moved from job to job and developed communities outside traditional social arrangements.

Tortilla Flat

A 1935 novel by John Steinbeck set in California that explored the lives of working-class men.

In Dubious Battle

A 1936 novel by John Steinbeck depicting labor struggles among working-class laborers.

Of Mice and Men

A 1937 novel by John Steinbeck depicting the lives, dreams, and hardships of California ranch hands.

Susan Shillinglaw

Literary scholar who described Steinbeck's California fiction as portraying 'the dreams and defeats of common people shaped by the environments they inhabit.'

Steinbeck's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

A 1962 speech in which Steinbeck emphasized an author's responsibility to expose social injustice and address major moral dilemmas like atomic weaponry.

"Virus of restlessness"

Steinbeck's term for an incurable urge to travel and be elsewhere that afflicts wayward individuals.

Rocinante

John Steinbeck's customized 3/4-ton pickup truck with a camper top, named after Don Quixote's horse.

Charles le Chien

The full name of Steinbeck's old French gentleman poodle, born in Bercy and trained in France, who accompanied him on his trip.

Bercy

A suburb on the outskirts of Paris where Steinbeck's poodle Charley was born and trained.

Bleu

The color term used to describe Charley the poodle when he is clean.

"Ftt"

The specific sound Charley makes using his crooked front teeth when he wants to stop and salute a bush or tree.

Sag Harbor

A fishing town near the end of Long Island where Steinbeck received and outfitted Rocinante in August.

Shelter Island Ferry

The first ferry taken by Steinbeck upon departing Long Island to avoid New York traffic at the start of his journey.

Greenport

The town where Steinbeck boarded his second ferry along his initial travel route north off Long Island.

Orient Point

The point on Long Island from which Steinbeck took a third ferry across Long Island Sound to Connecticut.

Genoa

A type of sail set on a curving sloop that Steinbeck observed from the deck of the ferry across Long Island Sound.

Eaglebrook School

A school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, attended by Steinbeck's youngest son, where two hundred students visited Rocinante in droves.

Applejack

A 21-year-old liquor that Steinbeck shared with a New Hampshire farmer during a late-night discussion inside Rocinante.

Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet leader who generated news during Steinbeck's trip by taking off his shoe and pounding the table at the United Nations.

Literary Cartography

Lowell Wyse's term for using non-fiction travel writing as a form of mapping that reflects personal beliefs alongside objective descriptions.

Lowell Wyse

The scholar who theorized travel writing as 'literary cartography' or a way of using writing as mapping.

Audre Lorde

Black poet, essayist, activist, librarian, and teacher (1934–1992) committed to uplifting marginalized Black and queer women.

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

Audre Lorde's 1982 biomythography exploring her life and identity.

Biomythography

A literary genre combining biography, history, and myth, utilized by Audre Lorde to describe Zami.

The Black Unicorn

A 1978 poetry collection authored by Audre Lorde.

Sister Outsider

A 1984 collection of essays by Audre Lorde addressing interdependency, difference, and social change.

A Burst of Light

A 1988 essay collection published by Audre Lorde.

The Cancer Journals

Audre Lorde's 1980 memoir detailing her experience with breast cancer.

New York State Poet Laureate

The honor conferred upon Audre Lorde in 1991, one year before her death in 1992.

"The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House"

A famous essay by Audre Lorde highlighting the necessity of recognizing equal interdependency across differences.

"The Fourth of July"

An essay by Audre Lorde recounting a 1947 family graduation trip to Washington, D.C., where they experienced racial discrimination.

Cushman's Bakery

The bakery that produced 'marigolds,' the yellow iced cakes packed for the Lorde family's Washington trip.

Marigolds

Small, violently yellow iced cakes with scalloped edges from Cushman's Bakery eaten on the Lorde family trip.

Newton's

The West Indian bakery across Lenox Avenue from St. Mark's School where Lorde's family bought spice buns and rock-cakes.

St. Mark's School

A school located across Lenox Avenue from Newton's West Indian bakery in New York.

Milk train

A cheap nighttime train taken by Audre Lorde's family during her childhood to reach the Connecticut shore.

Marian Anderson

Prominent Black singer who sang at the Lincoln Memorial after being denied permission to perform in an auditorium by the D.A.R.

Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.)

An organization that refused to allow Marian Anderson to perform in their auditorium because she was Black.

Breyer's

The ice cream and soda fountain shop on Pennsylvania Avenue where Audre Lorde's family was refused indoor service due to race.

"The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action"

An essay by Audre Lorde arguing that silence immobilizes individuals rather than protecting them.

Robert Frost

Famous American poet (1874–1963) who won four Pulitzer Prizes and recited poetry at John F. Kennedy's presidential inauguration.

"The Gift Outright"

The poem recited by Robert Frost at President John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.

Robert E. Lee

The Confederate general after whom poet Robert Frost was named by his father.

Ezra Pound

Modernist poet and close friend of Robert Frost despite their stylistic differences.

"The Road Not Taken"

A famous 1915 poem by Robert Frost featuring a speaker standing at a fork between two diverging roads in a yellow wood.

Edward Thomas

British poet and close friend of Robert Frost for whom 'The Road Not Taken' was originally written as a teasing joke.

Adam Plunkett

Literary critic who highlighted Frost's ability to discover transcendent beauty in ordinary, obvious subjects.

Yellow wood

The autumn woodland setting where the two roads diverge in Frost's 'The Road Not Taken.'

Undergrowth

The dense cluster of plants into which one of the diverging paths bends and disappears in 'The Road Not Taken.'

Spondaic foot

A poetic metrical foot consisting of two stressed syllables, used to slow the tempo of a line.

Prospective-retrospective narration

A narrative technique described by John Savoie as projecting into the future to look back on present choices as past events.

John Savoie

Literary scholar who characterized 'The Road Not Taken' as a 'projection into the future to look back upon the present as the past.'

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

English Romantic poet and critic (1772–1834), author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and co-author of Lyrical Ballads.

Romanticism

A literary and philosophical movement emphasizing intense feeling, reflection, individualism, and nature over pure reason.

William Wordsworth

English Romantic poet who collaborated with Coleridge on the groundbreaking 1798 collection Lyrical Ballads.

William Blake

English poet who, along with Wordsworth and Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic movement in English literature.

Lyrical Ballads

A 1798 poetry collection by Wordsworth and Coleridge that marked a major watershed in Romantic literature.

"Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"

Wordsworth's definition of poetry from the 'Preface' to Lyrical Ballads, recollected in tranquility.

Adam Nicolson

Writer who described Romantic poetry as a subversive challenge to civilization rather than mere decorative art.

Nether Stowey

The small rural English town where Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived while collaborating with Wordsworth.

Alfoxton

The rural town where William Wordsworth resided near Coleridge during their work on Lyrical Ballads.

"Sage of Highgate"

The nickname given to Coleridge during his later years while residing at a friend's home in Highgate.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous 1798 Romantic poem detailing a sailor's supernatural journey and redemption.

Ballad measure

A traditional poetic structure consisting of quatrains in alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter with an abcb rhyme scheme.

Iambic tetrameter

A line of verse consisting of four iambic feet, containing eight syllables with alternating unstressed and stressed accents.

Iambic trimeter

A line of verse consisting of three iambic feet, containing six syllables with alternating unstressed and stressed accents.

Sestina (in ballad structure)

A six-line stanza variant used strategically by Coleridge to intensify emotional or dramatic scenes in his ballad.

Wedding-Guest

The character detained by the ancient Mariner who is compulsively drawn to hear his tale of transgression and redemption.

Albatross

A large sea bird shot down by the Mariner, later hung around his neck as a symbol of burden and sin.

Cross-bow

The weapon used by the Ancient Mariner to shoot the harmless Albatross.

Life-In-Death

The nightmare specter woman on the ghost ship who wins the Mariner's soul in a game of dice.

Hermit

The holy man living in the woods who hears the Mariner's initial confession and shrives his soul after the ship sinks.

Faulty, warpy reservoir

Steinbeck's description of memory as an unreliable basis for writing about America — the reason he felt he had to travel the country again after 25 years away.

Peripatetic eyes and ears

Steinbeck's self-description as a detached, anonymous observer on the trip — someone who takes in information without interviewing anyone or revealing his identity.

Synecdoche (Travels with Charley)

The technique, named in the guide's analysis, of presenting individual encounters — like the New Hampshire farmer — as representative of the character of the whole nation.

Badger holes, ringed with trash

Steinbeck's disparaging metaphor for American cities, part of his broader tendency to valorize small towns over urban centers.

New Orleans (Travels with Charley)

A stop in a later, unexcerpted section of the book where Steinbeck critiques the racism of white Southerners protesting school desegregation.

Moby-Dick reference in Travels with Charley

The memoir's introduction echoes the opening of Melville's Moby-Dick as part of how Steinbeck frames his own 'virus of restlessness.'

Journey of rejuvenation and rediscovery

The guide's overall characterization of the purpose behind Steinbeck's road trip.

Never recognized in Rocinante

Despite his fame, Steinbeck claims he wasn't recognized once in over 10,000 miles and 34 states — he believed people only identify others within a familiar context.

The New Hampshire farmer's real anxiety

The guide argues his unease about the future isn't ordinary aging-related worry, but a rational response to the atomic bomb and the era's fast technological change.

A force was in hand how much more strong [than fire]

Steinbeck's comparison of the atomic bomb to fire — humanity had thousands of years to learn to think about fire, but no time to do the same for nuclear weapons.

Mexican ranch hands and French-Canadian potato harvesters

Groups Steinbeck meets later in the book, outside this excerpt, as his cross-country journey continues.

Phyllis

Audre Lorde's older sister, whose high school graduation the Washington, D.C. trip also celebrated.

Why Lorde's mother avoided the dining car

She cited cost, but never told her children the real reason: Black people were barred from railroad dining cars headed south in 1947.

Phyllis's cancelled senior trip

Phyllis's all-white class trip was also to Washington, D.C., but the nuns privately returned her deposit because their hotel wouldn't rent rooms to a Black student.

We will take you to Washington, ourselves

Lorde's father's promise to Phyllis after her class trip fell through — a real family trip instead of 'an overnight in some measly fleabag hotel.'

Lorde's parents' silence about racism

Rather than naming or explaining racism, Lorde's parents treated it as a 'private woe' — telling their children only never to trust white people, without saying why.

Whiteness motif in 'The Fourth of July'

Lorde repeats the color white throughout — her light-sensitive eyes, the D.C. monuments, and finally the white waitress, counter, and uneaten ice cream — tying literal imagery to the essay's racial theme.

Lorde's retrospective narration

The technique of narrating the trip through her adult understanding layered over her childhood experience, revealing meanings she didn't grasp as a girl.

Two journeys in 'The Fourth of July'

The guide's framing of the essay as being about both a literal trip to D.C. and a figurative journey to a new awareness of American racism.

Frost's birthplace irony

Despite his reputation for rural New England poetry, Frost was actually born in San Francisco — one of several contradictions the guide identifies in his life.