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John SteinbeckA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Travels With Charley came at the end of Steinbeck’s career; it was his second-to-last book published before his death in 1968. Therefore, the context for Travels With Charley differs from that of his earlier works. Steinbeck prided himself on being a strong, masculine individual, able to overcome any obstacle he faced in his “long and unprotected life” (187). Unlike many of his literary contemporaries, who grew up with privileged backgrounds, he didn’t find financial success until well into adulthood and worked in many physically rigorous, working-class jobs before making a living as a writer. His life experience is evident in works like The Grapes of Wrath, in which the Joad family perseveres despite endless hardships, and in his other novels like Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden. The enormous underlying strength guiding most working-class American people permeates Steinbeck’s earlier works, and many characters reflect his vision of his young self. In Travels With Charley, however, his assessment of the average American takes a different turn. He depicts many characters as weak and hopeless, even though they live in conditions much better than most of Steinbeck’s fictional characters.
By John Steinbeck
Cannery Row
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East of Eden
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Flight
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In Dubious Battle
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Of Mice and Men
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Sweet Thursday
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The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
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The Chrysanthemums
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The Grapes of Wrath
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The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath
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The Log From The Sea of Cortez
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The Long Valley
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The Moon Is Down
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The Pearl
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The Red Pony
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The Wayward Bus
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The Winter Of Our Discontent
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To a God Unknown
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Tortilla Flat
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Action & Adventure
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Aging
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American Literature
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Animals in Literature
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Beauty
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Books on Justice & Injustice
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Books that Feature the Theme of...
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Civil Rights & Jim Crow
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Community
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Fear
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Inspiring Biographies
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Memoir
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Memory
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Nobel Laureates in Literature
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The Future
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The Past
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