40 pages • 1 hour read
John SteinbeckA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Travels With Charley came at the end of Steinbeck’s career; it was his second-to-last book published before his death in 1968. Therefore, the context for Travels With Charley differs from that of his earlier works. Steinbeck prided himself on being a strong, masculine individual, able to overcome any obstacle he faced in his “long and unprotected life” (187). Unlike many of his literary contemporaries, who grew up with privileged backgrounds, he didn’t find financial success until well into adulthood and worked in many physically rigorous, working-class jobs before making a living as a writer. His life experience is evident in works like The Grapes of Wrath, in which the Joad family perseveres despite endless hardships, and in his other novels like Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden. The enormous underlying strength guiding most working-class American people permeates Steinbeck’s earlier works, and many characters reflect his vision of his young self. In Travels With Charley, however, his assessment of the average American takes a different turn. He depicts many characters as weak and hopeless, even though they live in conditions much better than most of Steinbeck’s fictional characters.
By John Steinbeck
Action & Adventure
View Collection
Aging
View Collection
American Literature
View Collection
Animals in Literature
View Collection
Beauty
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Books that Feature the Theme of...
View Collection
Civil Rights & Jim Crow
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Inspiring Biographies
View Collection
Memoir
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Nobel Laureates in Literature
View Collection
The Future
View Collection
The Past
View Collection