Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition (Initial Situation)
New York (Okay, New England) State of Mind
Steinbeck 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 to leave right after Labor Day so that he can avoid the summer traffic. While he's waiting to set out, there's a hurricane. Yikes—hey John, you know some people would take that as an omen, right?
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
Highways and Hotels and Bears—Oh, My!
Once John gets out on the road, he starts meeting a whole bunch of interesting people and sees some cool things—you know, pretty fall foliage, the Bad Lands, lots of highway, that kind of stuff. Oh, and Yellowstone—well, he kind of sees Yellowstone, anyway. He has to leave pretty quickly because Charley goes bananas over the bears (Charley thinks he could take them—right...). He goes all the way to the West Coast, where he spends some time with family and old friends, and then he drives back through the South.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Sneerleaders
On his way through Louisiana, he checks out a group of women known as the "Cheerleaders" who have made a name nationally for protesting the enrollment of two African American children at a New Orleans school. Apparently, the women work themselves up into a giant hate- and expletive-filled frenzy, and Steinbeck, who seems hard to faze, is pretty shocked and even nauseated.
Even though it shows up really close to the end of the book, this is the big emotional moment in the story. Steinbeck has been kind of sniffing out the political climate of the U.S. in terms of attitudes about the Cold War and nukes, but only in Louisiana does he put his finger on the pulse of the political issue that is really rocking the country: civil rights.
Falling Action
Hitchhiker's Guide to the South?
After seeing the Cheerleaders in action in New Orleans, Steinbeck seems kind of shell-shocked. He wants to get more people's perspectives on civil rights—and hopefully find some sane and reasonable people—but his attempts yield mixed results.
After one pretty humane discussion with a guy just outside of New Orleans about the sad political climate in the South, he starts picking up hitchhikers on his way out of town. The first one, an older African American man, gets way uncomfortable when Steinbeck tries to chat him up about race relations and asks to be let out immediately. Then, the next guy Steinbeck gives a ride to is extremely racist and pro-Cheerleader, so Steinbeck kicks him out of his truck. Then, after those two extremes, he picks up a young African American student who is willing to talk politics and race relations with Steinbeck and who is vocal and articulate in his views. So, the third hitchhiker in, Steinbeck finally gets the chitchat he was hoping for.
Resolution (Denouement)
Virginia is for Authors
Not too much happens in the way of excitement after Louisiana, and Steinbeck reflects that he had basically given up questing by the time he got to Virginia. Even though he still had several miles left before he was physically home, his brain was done checking out America, taking its temperature, etc.—he just wanted to go home. And so he did—after getting a bit lost, of course.