American Archetype Anomaly

Panoply of Three
There is an American archetype anomaly. In John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley: In Search of America" Steinbeck roams around America to find its truths as well as its essence in its places and people. Steinbeck meets three people on his embark, Robbie, a traveling actor, and a man called Ci Git. Robbie, a hopeful young man, wanted to be something new. He wanted to be a hairdresser for women, a strange concept but now slowing become normal in the modern world. Robbie’s father says, “Ambitious my big fat foot. You don’t know what the course was- hairdressing. Not barbering- hairdressing- for women. Now you see why I got worries” (Steinbeck 246). His father was disapproving because he was not accustomed to all these new ideas …show more content…
And he was one of Steinbeck’s guests of the day. Their conversation drifts to the current situation, “‘Everyone does. Are you traveling for pleasure?’ ‘I was until today. I saw the Cheerleaders.’ ‘Oh, yes, I see,’ he said, and a weight and a darkness fell on him. ‘What’s going to happen?’ ‘I don’t know. I don’t dare think about it. Why do I have to think about it? I’m too old. Let the others takes care of it.’ ‘Can you see an end?’ ‘Oh, certainly an end. It’s the means- it’s the means. But you’re from the North. This isn’t your problem’” (Steinbeck 363). Ci Git was accepting of the fact, and yet he still knows change is bound to happen. The Cheerleaders, he knows, are bound to get tired of their circus act and, well, as you can see it did. He doesn’t want to do anything about though because he is too old. He also says, “‘I have an old Negro couple as old as I am to take care of me. And sometimes in the evening we forget. They forget to envy me and I forget they might, and we are just three pleasant… things living together and smelling the flowers.’ ‘Things,’ I repeated. ‘That’s interesting- not man and beast, not black and white, but pleasant things’” (Steinbeck 366). Ci Git sees himself with the couple as just pleasant things and not that much more. And that’s interesting because he seems like he doesn’t feel like caring much anymore, just living to smell flowers and such. I guess when you’re that old you don’t really want to worry about anything

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