Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Wry and Humorous
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 funniest stuff he says is delivered with the utmost apparent seriousness (which of course makes it even funnier).
As Exhibit A, let's check out one of his descriptions of Charley. Even though his language is outwardly dead serious, it's so peppered with ridiculousness and anthropomorphizing that it's hard not to get the giggles as Steinbeck tells us about Charley's haughty, dignified anger after returning from the kennel and groomer's (where he was abandoned while Steinbeck was in Chicago):
Charley was torn three ways—with anger at me for leaving him, with gladness at the sight of Rocinante, and with pure pride in his appearance. For when Charley is groomed and clipped and washed he is as pleased with himself as is a man with a good tailor or a woman newly patinaed by a beauty parlor, all of whom can believe they are like that clear through. Charley's combed columns of legs were noble things, his cap of silver blue fur was rakish, and he carried the pompon of his tail like the baton of a bandmaster. A wealth of combed and clipped mustache gave him the appearance and attitude of a French rake of the nineteenth century, and incidentally concealed his crooked front teeth. I happen to now what he looks like without the tailoring. One summer when his fur grew matted and mildewed I clipped him to the skin. Under those sturdy towers of legs are spindly shanks, thin and not too straight; with his chest ruff removed one can see the sagging stomach of the middle-aged. But if Charley was aware of his deep-down inadequacy, he gave no sign. If manners maketh man, then manner and grooming maketh poodle. He sat straight and nobly in the seat of Rocinante and he gave me to understand that while forgiveness was not impossible, I would have to work for it. (3.1.4)
All right, sure, we believe that the poodle has a lot of emotions—but the comparisons to nineteenth-century rakes? And the faux, antiquated English: "If manners maketh man, then manner and grooming maketh poodle"? Come on, you know that's tongue-in-cheek.
Steinbeck's deadpan style and these ridiculous moments of poodle/human blurring give us the sense that the author likes to keep things pretty light, even when getting pretty insightful and dismantling the world around him.
That's right—don't go thinking Steinbeck's observations are just for comic relief; with the humor comes a lot of analysis of people and places. Even when it comes to Charley (as we discuss in the "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory" section), Steinbeck really kind of ends up making a larger point about humanity when his dog looks more "human" than some of the human characters.