What Is The Paradox In Travels With Charley By John Steinbeck

Throughout “Travels with Charley”, Steinbeck encounters many individuals, each with their own story to tell, and each one willing to share it, which is the reason why Steinbeck finds it so hard to pin down a commonality in Americans. Throughout his travels, Steinbeck continually finds himself within the company of others: whether it is a humble farmer with whom he discusses politics, or an ambitious family man from Ohio dreaming of starting an auto repair business. While their interests and character very wildly, each one is more than willing to share their own individuality, and thus is responsible for the paradox Steinback outlines in the quote, “But the more I inspected this American image, the less sure I became of what it is. It appeared to me increasingly paradoxical, and it

… If the same song, the same joke, the same style sweeps through all parts of the country at once, it must be that all Americans are alike in something.” (244). After observing the many individuals Steinbeck encounters, it seems clear that the commonality of Americans is their willingness to promote their individualities, yet there are still generalizations to be made from this common trait. This means that the people themselves are quite unique, but their acceptance of their own uniqueness has generalizable qualities. This is why Steinbeck finds it possible to see both Americans as individuals, and also as a general concept. This is seen in the quote, “ Americans as I saw them and talked to them were indeed individuals, each one different from the others, but gradually I began to feel that the Americans exist, that they really do have generalized characteristics regardless of their states, their social and financial status, their education, their religious and their political convictions.”