Steinbeck: Travel With Charley

"A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip take us." Pg 767

This part of the story clearly defines Steinbeck's definition of "travel." A "travel" is something that is special for each individual. It is a part of their maturity into wisdom with their own experiences during the journey. As in The Road Trip, Steinbeck's points out that a journey cannot be planned, "safeguards, policing," or be analyzed. A journey should be spontaneous, random, and risky in order to truly become a "traveler" and not just a "tourist." Let the "trip take us" far and wide, and not be so limited to things that are planned!

Although Steinbeck talks about being spontaneous, random, and not have "plans, and safeguards," why is it that his whole trip was kind of planned?

Steinbeck: Travels With Charley

p. 771 "I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation -- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every state I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move."

Question: Where does this yearning desire come from? And, do you think Steinbeck capitalized "Here" to mimic Joseph Addison's use of capital letters?

Travels with Charley page 780

"But maps are not reality at all -- they can be tyrants. I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a route, are held to it as though held by flanged wheels to trails"

Although John Steinbeck's definition of the road trip seems to slightly differ from Kerouac's, in this quote we see how the definitions are similar. Kerouac believes that a road trip must not be planned out and spontaneity, mystery and adventure are the most important characteristics of a road trip. However in Travels with Charley we get a slightly different definition from Steinbeck, that a road trip should be planned and laid out, as Jessica explained. In this quote however, we see that although there should be some planning or future destination in mind, along the way the road trip should still be spontaneous and adventurous. I think he is saying that people are so consumed with getting to their final destinations, following maps so closely, that they forget to look out their windows and see the beautiful parts of the country they don't normally get to see. They don't take full advantage of the road trip because they are so obsessed with staying on track with the map and miss out on the "adventure" part of the trip they are taking. It is important even when we have a final destination or a planned general route to follow, to not forget to look at our surroundings and soak up the beauty and the uniqueness of each different place.

Question: Several places throughout the reading we see that he wants to escape from "Here". Why is this constantly capitalized and what does he mean by Here?

John Steinbeck

Page 768 top paragraph, "In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."

I believe that these 2 sentences describe Steinbeck's feelings about a journey very well. He, like Kerouac describes a journey as something you cant control and that you encounter many different situations on the way even though you think you have a "plan". I find it interesting that he compares it to a marriage because like a journey a marriage is unpredictable and there are many things that a husband and wife/traveler and the road must go through to "survive".

On page 767 he states "We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us." I I find that this quote helps to explain his comparison of the road to marriage because everything is unpredictable. You can plan and hope for the best with no troubles but there will always be obstacles that you must fight through to make it and call both successful. Along the way you find out many more things about yourself and your partner(in a marriage), which if you hadn't gotten to experience the journey, you might never have been exposed to and learned about.

Do you think that this narrator is going to learn more about himself than Sal on his trip because he has his own form of transportation, or do you think that this greatly hinders his spontaneity and experience?

John Steinback

Pg. 767 (first page of part one) "Next he must plan his trip in time and space, choose a direction and a destination. And last he must implement the journey. How to go, what to take, how long to stay."

This differs from Jack Kerouac's perspective of a road trip. In Kerouac's novel, a road trip comes out of spontaneity, and Sal goes whereever the road takes him. He does not have a specific route that he takes and just catches rides with whoever comes along. In John Steinback's description, it seems like the journey is not spontaneous and includes some type of planning. From this quote, he shows that to take on a journey, one must plan ahead, knowing the general direction and paths to take.

The narrator has mentioned that people want to get "away from Here" in a couple of sentences. What does he mean when he says "Here"?