Travels with Charley Analysis

Steinbeck is traveling all over the U.S. in this tome, so our setting switches up a lot throughout the story. However, we've divided the kind of descriptions he gives into three main categories for...

This is Steinbeck's personal (if heavily fictionalized) account of his jaunt around the U.S. with his dog, so it's hardly a stunner that he's the first-person narrator of the tale. As we mentioned...

By naming his truck Rocinante, Steinbeck automatically aligns himself with the quester to end all questers: Don Quixote. You know, that's the dude who was so committed to his trip that he embarked...

As we've mentioned elsewhere, Steinbeck has a solid sense of humor—both when it comes to other people and when it comes to himself. It's a dry and deadpan kind of humor, though; lots of the funni...

As we noted in the "Tone" section, Steinbeck tends to say the most ridiculous things with a completely straight "face" (which makes them totally hilarious). In fact, sometimes he really ramps up th...

Well, there aren't a lot of frills, bells, or whistles in the title, or a lot of mystery for that matter. Travels with Charley: In Search of America is just what the title says it is: the story of...

Appropriately enough, Steinbeck ends the story with him getting lost, this time in New York City. He's spent a lot of the story turned around, so it seems only fitting that he would get lost one la...

Steinbeck's writing style is straightforward and mostly free of million-dollar words (or even ten-thousand dollar words), so we don't think you'll find the book too hard to trudge through on that l...

New York (Okay, New England) State of MindSteinbeck and Charley get ready to set out on the road so Steinbeck can reconnect with America—you know, the land and the people and all that. He decides...

When the book opens, Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, are preparing for a cross-country "boys"-only road trip. A hurricane hits right before Steinbeck is slated to leave, but everything is all cl...

Steinbeck and his French poodle, Charley, pack up their stuff in a big truck named "Rocinante" and hit the road to check out America. And we mean really check it out—they're planning to go all ov...

Scholars believe that Steinbeck's wife was with him for a lot more of the trip than he lets on. Also, he stayed in a lot more hotels, including some fancy ones. (Source.) Journalist Bill Steigerwal...

Steinbeck is on the road alone with his dog, so the steaminess factor is, you'll be glad to know, extremely low. Aside from lovingly comparing landscapes to dolled-up women, you don't get a lot of...

Addison, Joseph (2.1.118-122, 2.1.125, 2.1.129) Allen, Fred (2.3.52) Alsop, Joseph (2.3.62) Brunhild (3.2.12) Carroll, Lewis (4.4.16) Conan Doyle, Arthur, The Adventures of Sherl...