Travels With Charley By John Steinbeck Analysis

In Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck’s theme in his story is that as time progresses, you are always discovering something new or different about yourself and your surroundings. Steinbeck tells the story of how he, his dog Charley, and truck Rocinante would take a trip across America to find out what has been going on in his country. Throughout the story he was able to discover his even more about his own identity with the help of the stops he made along his travels.
The story begins with Steinbeck wanting to get to know his country because he does not feel like he knows it enough. He prepped for his trip by having a custom truck made. He named his truck Rocinante after Don Quixote’s horse. He then makes a stop in New Hampshire. They begin to have normal small talk about current events.. After that he makes a few canadian friends in Maine. He
His interactions with people along his adventure helped him discover his identity and build his character. Steinbeck himself is on a mission to find out what is the current state of America is. Steinbeck himself is very impartial with other people until he really disagrees with someone. Charley his poodle, has many human qualities. But he is characterized in this story as Steinbeck himself. That is shown when Charley has dialogue With Steinbeck. Essentially Steinbeck uses Charley as him talking to himself since dogs really cannot talk.
Now there are two very important symbols in this story. One is charley and the other is his Truck Rocinante. Even Though Charlie is a character in this story story, he also is symbol that Steinbeck uses. Charley has the ability to play as an object and a human. He names the truck Rocinante to acknowledge his favorite author Don Quixote. The name symbolizes him just letting go of everything and just leaving with no purpose. His trip was just another way of getting away from his normal life and experience new things for a little