How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
A lovely sloop stood away from us, her genoa set like a curving scarf, and all the coastal craft trudged up the Sound or wallowed heavily toward New York. Then a submarine slipped to the surface half a mile away, and the day lost part of its brightness. Farther away another dark creature slashed through the water, and another; of course they are based in New London, and this is their home. And perhaps they are keeping the world's peace with this venom. I wish I could like submarines, for then I might find them beautiful, but they are designed for destruction, and while they may explore and chart the sea bottom, and draw new trade lines under the Arctic ice, their main purpose is threat. (2.1.4)
At the surface, Steinbeck keeps things pretty funny and relatively light for a lot of the book, but don't be fooled—there are clues from early on that he has some weightier things on his mind (and other Americans do, too). For example, here he is fresh out on the road, staring out at the Long Island Sound, and his mind turns to... nuclear war? You see, that's the first thing that comes to mind when he sees submarines. As you'll learn once you get further into the book, Steinbeck's mind returns early and often to the subject of nuclear war and the potential for total annihilation that it presents.
Quote #2
And I remember too well crossing the Atlantic on a troop ship and knowing that somewhere on the way the dark things lurked searching for us with their single-stalk eyes. (2.1.4)
Ah, now we get the submarine connection a little better. Apparently, he associates them with traveling on a troop ship and knowing that subs were below him. Of course, he associates subs with war, then—he was with troops during one when he first encountered them.
Quote #3
"How can you tell them?"
"I know them. I'm on them."
"Atomic?"
"Not yet, but I've got an uncle on one, and maybe pretty soon." (2.1.6-9)
Steinbeck meets a guy on the ferry across the Long Island Sound who can distinguish between the different types of subs. Apparently, the one Steinbeck just spotted is a new one—the guy knows because he works on them.
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.
Quote #7
"Oh, sure! Hardly a day goes by somebody doesn't take a belt at the Russians." For some reason he was getting a little easier, even permitted himself a chuckle that could have turned to throat-clearing if he saw a bad reaction from me.
I asked, "Anybody know any Russians around here?"
And now he went all out and laughed. "Course not. That's why they're valuable. Nobody can find fault with you if you take out after the Russians." (3.3.28-30)
Steinbeck has trouble finding people willing to express strong or unpopular opinions (see "Men and Masculinity"), but hating the Russians during the Cold War is something seemingly everyone can get behind, according to his account.
Quote #8
If the most versatile of living forms, the human, now fights for survival as it always has, it can eliminate not only itself but all other life. And if that should transpire, unwanted places like the desert might be the harsh mother of repopulation. (3.12.24)
Now Steinbeck is thinking explicitly about what a post-nuke America might look like. It sounds pretty topsy turvy—can you imagine fleeing to the desert for life and a future? Apparently Steinbeck can. Scary times.
Quote #9
I had seen so little of the whole. I didn't see a great deal of World War II—one landing out of a hundred, a few separated times of combat, a few thousand dead out of millions—but I saw enough and felt enough to believe war was no stranger. So here—a little episode, a few people, but the breath of fear was everywhere. I wanted to get away—a cowardly attitude, perhaps, but more cowardly to deny. But the people around me lived here. They accepted it as a permanent way of life, had never known it otherwise nor expected it to stop. The Cockney children in London were restless when the bombing stopped and disturbed a pattern to which they had grown accustomed. (4.4.85)
Steinbeck associates the kind of violence and fear that surrounds the civil rights conflict with wartime, suggesting that acclimating to this kind of tension is akin to acclimating to wartime.
Quote #10
I tossed about until Charley grew angry with me and told me "Ftt" several times. But Charley doesn't have our problems. He doesn't belong to a species clever enough to split the atom but not clever enough to live in peace with itself. (4.4.86)
Once again, Steinbeck uses Charley as an important focal point in critiquing human beings. He makes a compelling point: Charley might be a dog, but at least he hasn't made the catastrophic mistake of unleashing devastating technology in a non-peaceful world. Hmm, good point