French, Warren "Adventures in the Long Valley," in John Steinbeck, pp 80-94. New York Twayne Publishers, 1961 Discussion of Steinbeck's short fiction which finds "Flight' * comparable to Theodore Dreiser's novelAn American Tragedy, "since Pepe, like Dreiser's Clyde Griffiths, is an impetuous but not too intelligent young man who is destroyed when a social situation places upon him responsibilities he is unequipped to assume."

McCarthy, Paul "The Steinbeck Territory," in John Steinbeck, pp 23-45. New York Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, 1980.

Discusses "Flight" as a story which is enriched by its successful blend of several important elements. McCarthy notes that the story's symbolism, imagery, and setting combine with "such traditional tiiemes as the flight from society into the wild, and passage from innocence to experience" to form an "excellent story" which is richer and more complex dian other Steinbeck stories, such as "The Chrysanthemums" and "The White Quail."

Young...