Journey with Charlie to Find America

American writer Raymond Carver wrote: Traveling with Charlie shows how meaningful even a simple stroll can be – through different parts of America, accompanied only by a dog. This is a story of loss and rediscovery of oneself. “Traveling with Charlie to Find America” was published in 1962, the book is Steinbeck’s travel memoir. One day, the writer decides to rediscover his own country and begins a great journey around America with his poodle, Charlie. This journey, both literally and figuratively, is a deep and interesting study of American life, identity, and culture, this book is a writer’s observation of his own country’s past and present. The journey is long and undirected, and what is predetermined or planned is never fulfilled. The writer discovers many things as he travels from state to state, city to city, for months, and what he thought was familiar turns out to be completely alien and discolored. Particularly disturbing is the indifference, hopelessness, and sometimes even helplessness of society, which is often associated with issues related to race, politics, and social division. According to Steinbeck, he did not really know what he was looking for and was not sure what he would find as a result of this journey, although this book really makes the reader discover a completely different America and American society in the 60s.

John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer. He was the 1962 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature. He is best known for his novella Of Mice and Men (1937) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Both of them depict working-class life during the Great Depression. Steinbeck wrote in a naturalistic style, often focusing on working-class life; his works covered a wide range of subjects, from ocean biology to jazz, politics, philosophy, history, and mythology. Seventeen of his works, including Cannery Row (1945) and Pearl Harbor (1947), have been adapted for film by Hollywood. Steinbeck himself also made a name for himself as a Hollywood writer, and was once nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1945).