John Steinbeck 2006. The Wayward Bus.

AbuBaker, Hwiada

Book review

John Steinbeck 2006. The Wayward Bus. Penguin Classics.

ISBN

0142437875 (ISBN13: 97801424 37872) (304 pages)

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First published in 1947, Steinbeck's "The Wayward Bus" has captured the attention of many publishers and readers to read re-read and repeatedly republish. Steinbeck himself is a winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. He used to put favorable flavor to his writings, which takes the readers in propitious journey to distinct places, times, historical moments and unusual circumstances with a diversity of characters

The reason for the surviving of this novel is that like all other work of Steinbeck, the author impresses the readers with his dynamic grasp of character which might resemble and represent the diversity of human-being in every culture. In The Wayward Bus, Steinbeck tried to gather a group of heterogeneous personalities for a long time during very difficult circumstances.

The novel is written in a way that, as it gradually unfolds, the reader finds oneself emotionally sympathizing with the characters if not finding oneself in a near likeness to one of them or might have met them in one or another corner of life.

The characters of the story are: Juan Chicoy, the bus driver and an owner of a lunchroom: "A lusty, hot blooded man.

Camille Oak, an extroverted dancer at stage parties heading to Los Angles. She represented the center which enabled many people to discover themselves and change in one way or another. She herself unfolded many of her personality processes as she sought to move between and among the passengers.

Norma, a simple introvert, hired to work at the lunchroom. She was deeply involved in a unilateral love to a famous actor who did not even know her. Mr. Van Brunt, an old stuffy man who objected to anything the other passengers agreed upon.

Ernest Horton, a traveling salesman, very flexible and humorous, clever at cheating people and selling them his trifles.

Miss Mildred Pritchard, a politically active college girl.

is a student-athlete was revealed in the story living a teen life away from the eyes of the parents, particularly as she kept the parents away from two lovers while away at college. She is sexually attracted to Juan. At that moment she was still afraid of Mr. and Mrs. Prtichard's reaction to know the secret life she was having: Mildred was looking at Juan, fascinated. There was something in this dark man with his strange warm eyes that moved her. She felt drawn to him. She wanted to attract his attention, his special attention, to herself. She had thrown back her shoulders so that her breasts were lifted. "Why did you leave Mexico?" she asked, and she took off her glasses so that when he answered he would see her without them.

Mr Pitchard who is a businessman and his wife were heading to Mexico for a vacation.

The unique collection represents people in transition - hoping to move on, gathered in a bus traveling the back roads to San Juan Dela Cruz from where each passenger would continue the way to a different destination. Thus the bus represented after which everybody would be delivered at a destination.

The prolonged break-down of the bus in the mid-trip, in the lonely roads due to the weather circumstances provided the space and time for the interaction of the heterogeneous characters, who otherwise in normal circumstance might have hardly realize the coexistence of each other.

Steinbeck tries to stress how those characters acted and reacted during crises, how in fact, they influenced each other and changed one another.

The pretty blonde Camillea Oak took her position in the bus by Norma" (p. 56), Steinbeck tried to reflect how these two very different characters soon formed a friendly relationship. Through the process of their interaction including telling each other their stories, secrets lives... etc. Norma realized that the secret love she felt towards the actor was in fact a way of expressing her secret admiration towards his lively magical world and not him as a man.

The analysis of some of the characters' personalities in the story reflect Steinbeck's deep under of the psychological nature of human beings.

Skillfully, Steinbeck displayed the dark side of his characters whereby either they could overcome their own conflicts with the self or with the others or manifest their problems in a way or another.

One conflict appears in Camelle's life when she seemed to suffer two kinds of conflicts and contradictions:

1. Between her present life as a dancer and her secret dream to make a family and live a peaceful life &

2. Between her coaxing approach to men and disliking this behavior

Another conflict appeared in the novel is in the life of Juan Chicoy, as a bus driver being half Mexican-half Irish he reserved a deep secret hatred to the White Man, yet he seemed to be peaceful and quiet.

Conflicts also appear in the life of the couple Mr. and Mrs. Pitchards whose failure in their marriage was kept as a secret and they were afraid to declare it so as not to be criticized by others.

The breaking down of the bus in the middle of the rain seemed to mark a turning point in the life of all the characters. This seemed to me a little bit superficial because it gives the impression that those people were really prepared to change and were just waiting for the appropriate moment which was recognized by the breaking down of the bus. Three moments were declared in the process: The past, the present and the future. While the reader could understand the first two moments the third moment, namely the future was not unfolded, nor the insight to work out to actualize the visions for the future were declared! In that sense the story seemed to be unfulfilling to those readers who might be inspired to change.

Yet the reader will admire the systematic transformation to self-realization from getting away to getting into the self and knowing what does each character need. Talking with others in the story represents the psychotherapeutic activity that helped the characters' id to take its journey from the unconscious to the conscious ego, thus, they become aware of their own downfalls and to regain trust in life and self.

Steinbeck is a great writer the descriptive nature is very interesting as of how not only people but situations and circumstances may force people out of their own zones of life to the world of others then back to discover another zones life with new vision. These historical moments in the life of each are important to realize and document.

The book is well written and contains a lot of nice expressions that are having impact and influence other work in social science. Expressions such as: "She was loaded with the concupiscent juices of adolescence" is already in use as a theoretical base to provide deep understanding of social sciences particularly in sexual Psychology and Sociology.

It had inspired some writers to work on analyzing human nature during transformations for example: Bert, Bender 2004. Evolution and "the sex problem". The Kent State University Press.

In this book Bert has written a complete chapter entitled "To Be Alive": John Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez and the Wayward Bus from page 312 till page 328, making use of many ideas of Steinbeck to analyze the problems of sexuality in the life of people.

With such richness Steinbeck's "The Wayward Bus" is useful for a wide range of subjects in humanities and social sciences.

Reviewed by Hwiada AbuBaker