Steinbeck is a man that is filled with himself. Back in the 1960s masculinity was very well known. It’s like a tradition of possession and qualities in man. Masculinity has to do with how a man see themselves and how they compare themselves with other men. Steinbeck has many firm views and has very high standards on how a man should act and be in the world. In the book Travels with Charley in search of America there were several passages were he has shown that he sees himself as a masculine man and how he has strandrands to be met. If there not met he will talk negative and judges people immensely.
When a man compares himself to other men they feels as if he’s bigger than them by making them look small. As Steinbeck was getting ready to leave for his trip across America, he compared himself to other men when he claimed that “ I live violently, drink highly, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed too long in the glory or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I’ve lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not a punishment”( Steinbeck 20). In his point of view he is a very masculine man.
Nothing stops him even if he is fifty year old man that has high cholesterol. Even after the doctor tells him to take it easy. Men love to compare themselves especially to men that don’t act like men and more of a child it makes them feel bigger. Steinbeck also states that his wife married a man Women marry men and not children. As he compared to himself to other men he pointed his view out about masculinity that men have to have standards and they have to get back up when they fall. He also proves to his readers that men have to want to live and must give everything that they have in themselves.
127 our experts are availableright now
Steinbeck is in hotel room in chicago to meet his wife. This hotel is very high class hotel. He is very sweaty and looks as if he hasn’t showered in days. His room isn’t ready yet so he puts his feet up in the waiting room. The receptionist doesn’t look to happy. So he offers him a room that hasn’t been cleaned yet. The first thing he should have done was take a shower but he looks around the room and has thoughts about the man that was there previously there. He made up names and work positions for the previous people in his room. He came up with a man named harry and a women named lucille.
Harry was a businessman and had an affair on his wife with a prostitute. He believes that they didn’t sleep together because lucille poured her drink in the tree. Steinbeck has thoughts that harry was a very lonely man. Steinbeck stated, that he “feels bad for harry because he didn’t have fun, second he was lonesome maybe in a chronic state”. ( Steinbeck 119) In reality steinbeck is a lonely man. He sees his wife once in awhile and he travels america with his poodle. His conversations are usually with him or strangers. When he compared himself he saw someone that is less happy than him and explained him as a man that has no meaning to live. When someone compares themselves with people that are worse than them they feel better about themselves.
Further on in his adventure he sees himself fishing, hunting and fist fighting. It was a hot day and it was in the summer. He described the Desert as a “big and scary dessert”. (209) When he was in the Mojave Desert he found himself seeing two coyotes. He repeatedly went back and forth in his brain. Whether to kill them or not. His trainer was telling him to “kill them. Its a public service”. but he couldn’t find himself shooting the animals. He knew he could do it. He had the coyotes right in front of the rifle and he ended up not shooting them. He over thought it and felt bad he claimed “that there isn’t a chicken within thirty miles, this waterless place it’s not a quail country”. ( Steineck 212) Not very manly but then he thought there’s no point in killing the coyotes. The animals suffer almost everyday to get water and food. He felt and and he ended up not shooting them . He felt as if there was no purpose. In his point of view men have to do everything with purpose but in this case he followed his thoughts and heart and felt like a man.
Therefore Steinbeck sees himself as a masculine man and he has high standards. There comes points in the novel were he feels like this big masculine man. In some passages he may not be very manly but he proves his masculinity in others ways. Masculinity is what it means to be a man and in his point of view it doesn’t include drinking beers or chest thumping himself. His point of view is to live freely and live life with purpose.
Works Cited
- Steinbeck, John. Travels with Charley in search of America
