To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light— these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been...
excerpt taken from:
Travels with Charley (check out the books contents here)
Review:
My classes last week read this short story and did some background research on Steinbeck and his style of writing. There are apparently different sections of this story that are broken down into a short story format in literary anthologies. The reaction from my students was mostly the same... "What was that story about?" My answer was similar throughout the day, which I can sum up in one word "Americanism". We discussed what it means to be an American and why it was so important for Steinbeck to travel the country. We will be reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck soon and I think that this short story was a good introduction to one of America's greatest writers.
website to visit: http://www.steinbeck.org/Home.html
