Christopher

John Steinbeck: The Wayward Bus

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The Wayward Bus

For my primary source, I used Steinbeck's "The Wayward Bus", and examined how the road affects the typical lower class members of society.

This book reinforces one principle: the ability of people to intertwine and become not the same, but of a similar mindset. People are still like the random assortment of character still exist today, and this situation could still prevent itself today. The notion of a "bus" is also very important because of the implication that buses are reserved for the lower class, while upper class members of society will typically take more private means of transportation if availible.

The strangers of the novel meet at a questionable diner in the middle of nowhere, and end up taking a bus to the distant city of San Juan de la Cruz. The bus ends up breaking down and the characters of the novel are basically forced to bond together. The story is based around the idea that the road is the way that the working class people in that lousy diner bond together. They all have the idea that they should leave behind what is familiar, boring, and has treated them badly through life (being poor).

The bus breaking down forces the people on the bus to love, hate, talk, ignore, and eventually understand each other for who they all are: the same general idea that they are trying to escape from the boring world that has never treated them the way they feel they should have.