Travels with Charley

A detailed Summary of Travels with Charley

Survival: the continuation of life and existence. Survival is the meaning of the piece from Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. Although the many circumstances may arise, each living creature is trained to survive the environment in which it lives in. Survival is every being's first duty to perform, to try and "beat" the conditions of its life.

In this piece, Steinbeck uses imagery as a way to let the reader visualize the setting in which he is writing about. "Follow the double line of wheel tracks through sand and rock and you will find a habitation somewhere huddled in a protected place, with a few trees pointing their roots at under-earth water, a patch of starveling corn and squash, and strips of jerky hanging on a string." This sentence from the excerpt provides a perfect example of how his word choice and sentence structure creates great imagery for the reader.

Steinbeck's word choice provides a connection throughout his writing. At the beginning, he uses the word "mystery" twice in different forms to describe the desert. Steinbeck uses the word "mystery" to emphasize the way in which such a horrible place could actually be beneficial to anyone, or anything. He links this with the description of the desert, and late

The way that Steinbeck enhances the piece with his style is because he leads the reader into the end by feeding information in which eventually creates a full picture. Without the organization of his writing, his sentence structure, and the choice of his words, the writing would not have been as effective in conveying the true intent of Steinbeck's work. With using descriptive words, it enhances the picture so the reader can visualize exactly what Steinbeck is writing. In addition, with repetition of words, it stimulates the audience to realize that the word being repeated is important, and should be recognized. With the long sentences that are commonly found, it creates a more precise picture of the desert, and emphasizes the main points. At the beginning, it also creates the motionless feel of the desert. Finally, the most important part of Steinbeck's style is his organization because it is the soul purpose that the reader stays with the writing. He gives just the right amount of information to lead to the next idea. These three techniques create the entire work, and shape it into the way that Steinbeck intended.

r links it to his theory on the desert itself. The word itself foreshadows how "mystery" will be an important role in Steinbeck's writing later in the piece. In addition, at the beginning, in sentence above, Steinbeck us

Some common words found in the essay are:
John Steinbeck, Finally Steinbeck's, , picture desert, sentence structure, line wheel tracks, follow double line, writing sentence structure, tracks sand rock, wheel tracks sand, double line, wheel tracks, tracks sand, follow double, line wheel, imagery reader, sand rock, reader visualize,

Approximate Word count = 905
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels