10-1 Steinbeck

John Steinbeck grew up with a drive to be successful.  As a young boy he supported himself taking numerous jobs just to make it through.  When he finally began writing he showed deep empathy for migrate workers and those who struggle to survive.  He felt that they lost the enjoyment and the feeling of living with all the manual labor.  Steinbeck was able to write about these things because he fully understood them and experienced it first hand.

I enjoyed Steinbeck's story, "Flight" the story is about a young man who wants to become a man. He is the oldest child of the family and his father has deserted them.  He now feels like it is his job to be a man. His mother takes care of him and her other children.  She wants him to act more mature and grow up. Pepe’s dad had left a knife and Pepe had started carrying it. He loved that knife and he carried it around everywhere. He pulled it out a lot and threw it into the ground to keep it sharp and rust free. He cherished his father’s knife very much.  One day his mother sent him into town to get some medicine in case anyone got a stomach or tooth ache. He loaded up and went to town and was to stay the night and come back early in the morning. But something happen he was home earlier than normal. He had gotten into a fight killing a man with his knife. He told his mother the story and they packed his horse’s saddle bags so he can leave town. He tells his brother and sister by and they don’t understand why he is leaving. His journey takes him way into the woods where brush and thickets makes it hard to travel. The cliffs of rocks are hard for the horse to climb. Pepe being on guard at all times he hears animals and a person on a horse passing through. Pepe doesn’t have an easy travel into the mountains; he gets cut on a sliver of granite rock. His horse is shot and killed and he has to start walking to hide from whom ever may be after him for the killing. In the end Pepe was shot and killed, there he was the man he always wanted to be.