Analysis of travels with Charley (53-55)

What does Steinbeck define his road trip in “Travels with Charley” as?

A Journey of rejuvenation and rediscovery

What does the opening of “Travels with Charley” reference?

Moby-Dick

Who made “Moby-Dick?”

Herman Melville

What does steinbeck diagnose himself with in “Travels with Charley?”

The virus of restlessness

According to Steinbeck what is the virus of restlessness brought about by?

Too much time spent in one place as well as a growing fear of growing old and emasculated

Steinbeck says his memory is at best what?

A faulty, warpy reservoir

Many of Steinbeck's observations about the places he visits are tinged with what?

Nostalgia with how the country WAS

How far does steinbeck travel in “Travels with Charley?”

10,000 miles

How many states does Steinbeck travels across in “Travels with Charley?”

34 states

Who does Steinbeck meet in “Travels with Charley’s” later sections not part of our excerpt?

Mexican ranch hands and french-canadian potato harvesters

Steinbeck travels the US in what order?

Through New england→ Midwest→ Out to the pacific northwest and California→ and then across the southern portion of the country

What notable Southern location does STeinbeck visit and critique in “Travels with Charley?” WHat does he critique?

New Orleans; Racism of white southerners protesting school desegregation

How does Steinbeck describe himself in observing scenes of the country?

As being merely a set of “peripatetic eyes and ears”

What does Steinbeck’s description of himself as a set of “peripatetic eyes and ears” mean?

A detached wandering observer who simply takes in info as it is and dispassionately reports it

When did John Steinbeck travel around the US as depicted in “Travels with Charley?”

1960

Where did John Steinbeck travel to for an award in 1962?

Sweden

When did John Steinbeck win a novel peace prize for literature?

1962

Where does Steinbeck interact with the farmer?

New Hampshire

How does the Steinbeck's reflection of his conversation with the farmer display his subjective concerns?

it argues that the farmer’s uncertainties are more than just the usual ones from contemplating the future but are rational responses to the development of the atomic bomb (a long-standing concern of STeinbeck) and the pace of f the period’s technological development

What did Steinbeck believe the US was strugglign to make sense of?

Dramatic changes like the atomic bomb and technological development which were more destructive and more impactful than developments of the past

How does Steinbeck used for in his argument against technological development in “Travels with Charley?”

“And now a force was in hand how much more strong [than fire], and we hadn't had time to develop the means to think.”

In terms of a sense of potential doom within “Travels with Charley,” what does Steinbeck highlight and regard with suspicion?

He highlights encounters with men and women who cling to the past (as he does) while regarding changes in landscape and social structures with suspicion (as he does)

What are synecdochoes?

Presenting a part of something as representative as the whole something

How does Steinbeck use synecdoches in“Travels with Charley?”

He presents encounters with individuals as synecdoches for the nation itself (representing the whole character of the country)

Steinbeck valorizes what type of municipality?

Villages and small towns

What type of municipality does Steinbeck denounce? What does he say specifically about them?

Cities; “badger holes, ringed with trash”

Who compares travel writing to cartography and mapmaking?

Lowell Wyse

What did Lowell Wyse argue travel writing is?

It is a kind of “literary cartography"{ or a way of using writing “as a kind of mapping”

How is travel writing like maps?

Both are framed as objective indexes but much like maps reflect geopolitical prejudices or fail to record a region, travel writing and nonfiction in general can exemplify personal beliefs of the author rather than be objective