Part 1: Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

Steinbeck describes himself as an American writer known for writing about Americans, but he does not know the country. He lives in New York City and often flies to Chicago and San Francisco, but none of this is the great expanse of what is the whole United States of America. Twenty-five years earlier he had traveled the country in an old bakery truck with a mattress on the floor, but many changes have since come over the country. His purpose in taking this trip is to revisit the country he once knew better in order to reacquaint himself with its people and countryside.

Over the years the name John Steinbeck had become a commonly known identity, a famous and popular contemporary writer. His friends express to him a concern that he will never be able to travel incognito, but...