Travels With Charley in Search of America Paper Example

John Steinbeck, an American author, felt that he barely knew the country he immensely wrote. His 1960 road trip was aimed at satisfying his desire to understand America and the American people (Steinbeck 9). The planned trip, however, raised a lot of discouragements from his friends and advisers. Others, though, wished they could get a chance to travel to anywhere. For instance, a young boy in Steinbeck's neighborhood asked if he could accompany him, but Steinbeck couldn't do that. This paper seeks to highlight Steinbeck's observations on people and things that he came across during his trip. It also discusses the role that these physical things play in society, according to Steinbeck's observations.

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Since childhood, Steinbeck had a strong desire to travel to other places. The restlessness inside him seemed to propel him towards traveling, and nothing could prevent him from fulfilling this want (Steinbeck 8). He decides to embark on a road trip across the country since he feels that he has been relying on his memory of America in his writing. In the midst of his preparations, he orders a truck, containing a little house which would accommodate him and his dog during the journey. The truck, which he named Rocinante, proves to be worthwhile as it meets his travel requirements throughout his journey without much trouble.

Despite his focus to meet and talk to American people, Steinbeck's attention is drawn to things that he comes across. These seem to pop numerous questions about the state of the nation and their effect on society. For instance, as he drives through Hartford and Providence, he can't help but notice the heaps of garbage in the cities (Steinbeck 16). He loathes the fact that the current American society throws away more things than it uses. This is evident in the boxes, cartons, and bins which are used as packaging materials. Steinbeck questions the people's enthusiasm in those packaging materials that quickly lose their importance once their contents arrive. In addition to that, the high rate of industrialism has led to immense pollution on both land and water. The author is, hence, afraid that the cities would soon become inhabitable.

In the observation as mentioned above, a question arises on the importance of conserving the environment. Steinbeck is displeased with the people's nature of irresponsible disposal of things. The city people are so engrossed in the desire to have the items packaged, but they later have no use for the packaging material (Steinbeck 16). This portrays a picture of the contribution that human beings have towards pollution and environmental degradation. Industrialization also plays a significant role through the emission of harmful compounds that pollute the land as well as the waters.

As he traverses through New England, Steinbeck is marveled by the unending antique shops along the roads (Steinbeck 24). These, he notices are full of things that people in the earlier years had dumped as trash. They had later become of interest to tourists who viewed them as precious antiques. The huge volumes of these antiques showed how much people disposed of things which they no longer use. He thought that they would fully furnish the houses of fifty million people. Steinbeck acknowledges that we live in an 'era of obsolescence where things we once found useful later become meaningful. He affirms this by mentioning his garage which was half-full of junk.

The presence of antique shops portrays the people's inherent nature of throwing away useless or unwanted items. Steinbeck thinks that they spent a lot of money on overhauling services, while the items they disposed of could be valuable years later (Steinbeck 23). However, despite having these antique shops, the cities still had many wrecked vehicles and overflowing dumping sites. Steinbeck plays with the thoughts of collecting junk for his future generations, and in so doing, clear these garbage sites.

Later in Steinbeck's trip, he observes that the Americans of that time seemed to love the city environment (Steinbeck 34). As he travels through the countryside in Maine, he notices how many farms that were once populated have been abandoned. The once highly-esteemed village stores couldn't then compete with the supermarkets in the cities. It dawned to him that cities were growing more prominent, as villages diminished. The situation was similar in other places, for example, Texas. The people no longer valued their villages and rural life. This is, therefore, an indication that rural to urban migration was quite rampant during that time.

On various roads that Steinbeck travels on, he is intrigued by the numerous mobile homes he comes across. He later gets a chance to interact with families dwelling on one of the parks as a semi-permanent residence (Steinbeck 44). The homeowners seem friendly and are more than willing to show him their comfortable homes. Steinbeck makes a discovery on the nature of American life, based on the automobiles. He realizes that people greatly value new models of cars, and therefore, trade in their older ones to buy the new models. This is the same case with the mobile homes, where the owners buy the improved models and sell their previous ones to other willing families.

The author's visit to one of the mobile homes reveals something about the current community. Steinbeck is concerned by the fact that the children brought up in such homes had no "roots," since the families have no permanent dwelling (Steinbeck 46). The argument given by the father in that home reveals the reality that the society no longer treasures such things. He also adds that life dictates the course which one takes. For instance, losing a job could force you to move to a new place. After deep thought, Steinbeck concludes that the Americans are a restless people who always seem to have the desire to move.

Despite his avoidance of super-highways (thruways), Steinbeck finds himself driving through one, where he notices the absence of roadside food stands, factory outlets, and antique shops (Steinbeck 42). Another significant observation was the outcome of civilization on recreation places along road intervals. He marvels at the vending machines in the dining areas that could deliver various items, ranging from soft drinks, minor drugs, cosmetics, and handkerchiefs. His observation brings out the fact that people love easily-accessed things, hence their demand.

Food occupies a significant part of Steinbeck's journey. On numerous occasions, he prefers to prepare his meals, despite buying food sometimes. In his search for good places to eat, he notices that roadside eateries were different from the city restaurants (Steinbeck 60). The food was clean, but on the other hand, tasteless and colorless. Most people didn't quite mind about the food's taste as long as it looked dignified. Nonetheless, the breakfast in these restaurants was okay if it consisted of bacon, eggs, and pan-fried potatoes. This episode seems to suggest that the Americans prefer clean food to tasty food.

Steinbeck also made observations on the kind of reading materials that people bought. He found out that most people were intrigued by three types of materials. The first was the comic book which seemed to dominate the displays. The second were paperbacks with the themes of sex, sadism, and homicide. The third were those papers which originated from big cities such as the 'New York Times' and the 'Chicago Tribune.' The author's judgment on the people's reading habits depicts a nation with an emotional state that genuinely lacks in vigor. They, therefore, read such paperbacks to find gratification.

Conclusion

All in all, John Steinbeck's road trip in 1960 was a means of fulfilling his lifelong desire to move. This desire is fortified by the fact that he had been writing about America for many years but he felt that he barely knew the country very well. He intends to interact with the American people and learn a thing or two. However, during his journey, he makes many observations on items and people. These included the way people bought things, what they owned, and how they disposed of used items. In most cities, he notices the presence of dumping sites and consequently, pollution on the environment. It is evident that the American people threw away more items than they used. Thus, Steinbeck raises questions as well as explanations on the roles between these physical things and the society.

Work cited

Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968. Travels With Charley; in Search of America. New York:Viking Press, 1962. Print.