John Steinbeck From Travels with Charley

 

John Steinbeck                       FromTravels with Charley

The ranger suggests that one of the bears in the park might express its prejudice against dogs by batting a dog like a tennis ball and sending it flying like a puff of smoke.

Steinbeck writes: ‘It was too nerve-wracking, a shocking spectacle, like seeing an old, calm friend go insane.’This means/expresses the main character’s own surprise at the behaviour of his dog.He cannot understand how such a ‘good’ dog could suddenly turn so aggressive. The scenery of the National Park that he had wanted to peacefully enjoy with his Charley became nothing to him as all of his attention was on the issue of his dog and the bears. This is probably one of his first new discoveries about his own dog during travel.

Steinbeck turns around and leaves the park because of many reasons. His first reason is his fear of many bears gathering around his camping car and camp etc. He had probably not expected so many bears to show up on the road. There was nothing he could do but give up staying the night in the National Park. Even without dogs, the Park was probably still dangerous. The bears would injure anyone standing in their way to food. Steinbeck does not want his dog to be killed by a bear. He also wants to allow his dog to relax and enjoy their travel.

John Steinbeck feels different about his dog Charley after the experience in the National Park. When he spoke to the Park man in the beginning, he bragged about how different and special Charley was. ‘It is a unique dog of peace and tranquillity’ he says. When a change comes over the dog during the first encounter with a bear, Steinbeck could not believe his eyes. When it doubles and gets worse, Steinbeck tries placing the dog in the camping house behind the car. He is also surprised at the dog’s ability to snarl.

Steinbeck does not want to accept that the dog will continue to regard the bears as enemies. He tried his best to change things, but to no avail. The last paragraph of the passage ends with a description of Charley as he collapses on the floor and goes to sleep. No doubt it was the first time he had seen his dog so emotionally exhausted.

The two major techniques the author uses to make the passage entertaining are his well described action passages and dialogues with the Park man. The effects that these two techniques had on the passage to make it entertaining were very profound. Without the good description of what happened when the dog encountered the bears, the whole account would become less interesting to read. The well-structured dialogues were vital in providing the reader background information on the whole incident.Real-sounding dialogue may have more importance than other writing techniques.

Steinbeck’s description of Charley the dog going mad first in the car and next in the camping house was also one of the more entertaining uses of personification. Charley was the most important character in the passage and the author truly achieved the purpose of entertaining the reader with the changing behaviour and attitude of the dog he had known for so long.

 

Traveling with a dog alone is at first thought, something most other people would be very uninterested in hearing or reading about. Discovering something new and different in the same old dog would interest the writer, but perhaps not the reader. This passage truly shows a good example of how to entertain the reader with somewhat common topics.

 

Noah Nishihara Home group T09 (Wednesday, 2 March 2016)