How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
This cap is pretty ratty and salt-crusted, but it was given me by the skipper of a motor torpedo boat on which I sailed out of Dover during the war—a gentle gentleman and a murderer. After I left his command he attacked a German E-boat and held his fire trying to take it whole since none had ever been captured, and in the process he got himself sunk. I have worn his cap ever since in his honor and in his memory. (2.1.124)
Steinbeck doesn't go into too much detail about his war experiences here (he was a correspondent), but we get some little glimpses and references here and there, like this one. These stories aren't exactly warm and fuzzy (surprise, surprise, right?), and the fact that they keep popping up gives you the sense that Steinbeck is kind of stuck on the topic—and war's unpleasantness in general.
Quote #5
First the traffic stuck me like a tidal wave and carried me along, a bit of shiny flotsam bounded in front by a gasoline truck half a block long. Behind me was an enormous cement mixer on wheels, its big howitzer revolving as it proceeded. On my right was what I judged to be an atomic cannon. (3.2.9)
See, even when Steinbeck is just describing traffic, he ends up comparing the vehicles around them to war machines. If that's not proof that Steinbeck has war on the brain a lot, what is?
Quote #6
It took me nearly four hours to get through the Twin Cities. I've heard that some parts of them are beautiful. And I never found Golden Valley. Charley was no help. He wasn't involved with a race that could build a thing it had to escape from. (3.2.11)
These are Steinbeck's thoughts about his trip through the Twin Cities. As we already mentioned, he's been comparing the surrounding traffic to war machines, and here he's just realized that the highway has been designated an emergency evacuation route (in case of, like, an emergency). Given that the U.S. is super-enmeshed in the Cold War at this point, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what the most likely cause of evacuation would be at that time: nuclear war. Steinbeck is clearly alluding to nuclear technology when he notes that Charley (as a dog) is too smart to create the kind of weapon you'd need an evacuation route to flee from.