The Wayward Bus

“In a world that was not easy for Alice to bear or to understand, flies were the final and malicious burden laid upon her. She hated them with a cruel hatred, and the death of a fly by swatter, or slowly smothered in the goo of fly paper, gave her a flushed pleasure.”

Alice desires control in a world that feels chaotic to her. The flies symbolize her lack of control of the world around her and are suggestive of rot and decay. Alice’s desire to live without flies is a projection of her internal feelings of instability regarding the lack of control she feels over her life and relationships.

“Sometimes, wiping the damp cloth back and forth on the counter, her dream-widened eyes centered on the screen door, her pale eyes flexed and then closed for a moment. Then you could know that in that secret garden in her head, Gable had just entered the restaurant, had gasped when he saw her, and had stood there, his lips slightly parted and in his eyes the recognition that this was his woman. And around him the flies came in and out with impunity.”

This quote characterizes Norma as dreamy and prone to fantasy due to a desire to escape her reality. Clark Gable is a symbol of love and happiness onto which she can project these desires. The flies symbolize the reality she is trying to escape from.

“It was no beauty you could ignore by being used to it. It caught you in the throat in the morning and made a plan of pleasure in the pit of your stomach when the sun went down over it. The sweet smell of the lupines and of the grass set you breathing nervously, set you panting almost sexually.”

In this quote, Steinbeck highlights the beauty of Rebel Corners as a physical setting. Rather than a destination itself, Rebel Corners is essentially a pit stop between two more populous places—Los Angeles and San Francisco—but that doesn’t negate its beauty. Steinbeck’s novels about California often highlight the natural beauty of the state, which becomes metaphorical in juxtaposition to the lives led by the characters in the novel.

“Hanging from the top of the windshield were the penates: a baby’s shoe—that’s for protection, for the stumbling feet of a baby require the constant caution and aid of God; and a tiny boxing glove—and that’s for power, the power of the fist on the driving forearm, the drive of the piston pushing its connecting rod, the power of person as responsible and proud individual. There hung also on the windshield a little plastic kewpie doll with a cerise and green ostrich-feather headdress and a provocative sarong. And this was for the pleasure of the flesh and of the eye, of the nose, of the ear.”

“Penates” is a reference to protective household deities in ancient Rome. Here, the specific items Juan hangs around his windshield are intentional symbols on his part that reflect his belief system and desires. These talismans and the meanings he assigns them also suggest that Juan knows himself and what he wants, but he nonetheless purports to rely on divine signs and signals rather than his own judgment and decision-making. Notably, the narrative does not explicitly describe where Juan obtained the items.

“The fly rubbed its wings with its legs and then it rubbed its legs together and then it rubbed its face with its forelegs while the sun, slanting under the great puffed clouds, warmed its juices. Suddenly the fly took off, circled twice, fluttered under the oaks and crashed against the screen door of the lunch room, fell on its back […].”

The fly symbolizes the reality of the world. Reality has its own rules, such as its unpredictability. In this quote, the fly is surprised by its crash as it circles aimlessly. One moment, the fly is enjoying the sunshine, and the next, it is dead. This is a microcosm of the human experience, in which life is short, death can come quickly and suddenly, and life is ultimately unpredictable.

“And this was another thing Alice was frightened of. He had set her out to observe her. She knew that. All relations and all situations to Alice were person-to-person things in which she and the other were huge and all others were removed from the world. There was no shading. When she talked to Juan, there were only the two of them. When she picked at Norma, the whole world disappeared, leaving only Norma and her in a gray universe of cloud. But Juan, now, he could shut everything out and look at each thing in relation to the other. Things of various sizes and importance.”

This quote characterizes Alice and Juan through their differences, especially how they each view the world. Alice is inherently lonely in this difference because while she can focus on an individual, Juan is stimulated by everything and everyone around him. This quote is both a celebration and a warning of the importance people have in one another’s lives.

“Mr. Pritchard was a businessman, president of a medium-sized corporation. He was never alone. His business was conducted by groups of men who worked alike, thought alike, and even looked alike.”

Mr. Pritchard represents the average, stereotypical American businessman of the 1940s, one who is consumed by capitalism and neat responsibilities. Mr. Pritchard stands out in a place like Rebel Corners where he is not only not surrounded by people who are just like him but encounters people of vastly different backgrounds and situations. This captures not only Mr. Pritchard’s characterization but also the spirit of capitalist America that Steinbeck critiques.

“She talked very little but had in her own group gained a reputation for goodness and for sagacity; the first by saying only nice things about people, even people she did not know, and the second by never expressing a general idea of any kind beyond perfumes or food. She met the ideas of other people with a quiet smile, almost as though she forgave them for having ideas. The truth was that she didn’t listen.”

Steinbeck characterizes Bernice as a normative and obedient woman who is respected for her placidity. This is indicative of 1940s American attitudes toward women, wives, and mothers. This quote also highlights that people have many layers and often wear masks. For Bernice, politeness is a mask for the fact that she isn’t actually listening to others.

“She wanted to meet new and strange people and through such contacts to become new and strange herself. Mildred felt that she had covered wells of emotion in her, and she probably had. Nearly everyone has.”

Mildred’s desire for development is indicative of her age, privilege, and inclination to learn new things. Mildred is inquisitive because she is bored by the stereotypical life of her parents. Mildred represents the younger generation that is eager to explore, travel, and experience new things. At the same time, this quote highlights that Mildred is far from alone in her desire to be unique. Steinbeck states that everybody has “covered wells of emotion,” highlighting the distinction between an individual’s interiority and their external self.

“The rubber-shod trucks, the pounding automobiles, beat the concrete, and after a while the life went out of it and it began to crumble. Then a side broke off and a hole crushed through and a crack developed and a little ice in the winter spread the crack, so the resisting concrete could not stand the beating of rubber and broke down.”

In this quote, the beating down of the concrete road from the weight of trucks and the weather is a metaphor for human life, particularly in an era of rapid industrialization. Just as roads eventually crack and break under pressure, so do people.

“The lunchroom was dusky and very quiet. The fly moved to the edge of the drying pool of wine on the white tabletop. For a moment he sensed in all directions for danger, and then deliberately he dipped his flat proboscis into the sweet, sticky wine.”

In this moment of irony, alcohol—the thing that Alice uses to cope with her sadness about reality—attracts the thing that she fixates on most, flies. This highlights her lack of control and how the ways people sometimes cope with problems can create more problems.

“The clouds piled in gray threat on threat and a blue darkness settled on the land. In the San Juan valley the darker greens seemed black and the lighter green of grass, a chilling wet blue. ‘Sweetheart’ came rolling heavily along the highway and the aluminum paint on her gleamed with the evil of a gun. Away to the south a bank of dark cloud fringed off into rain and the curtain of it descended slowly.”

In this quote, Steinbeck creates ominous imagery and tone that foreshadows the bus’s predicament. The darkness and “threat” of the gray clouds create a tone of misery that parallels the moods of the characters in the novel.

“And they were a little like conscience. Try as he would, Mr. Pritchard could never lose the feeling that they were in some way his fault. Not that Mrs. Pritchard ever said anything or indicated that this might be so. In fact, she was very brave. She tried to muffle her screams with a pillow.”

Steinbeck uses Bernice’s migraines as a symbol of her internal conflict. The externally placid Bernice can only express her pain and isolation through the physical manifestation of her migraines. Furthermore, Elliott internalizes Bernice’s pain as a punishment for his “sins” because he is insecure about his unhappiness and the secrets that he keeps.

“The old road was simply a slice of country, uncultivated to start, marked only by wheel ruts and pounded by horses’ hoofs.”

The old road symbolizes the ways human society interferes with the natural beauty of the world. Had society not interfered via the construction of a road through otherwise undeveloped land, there would be no ditches for the bus to get stuck in. The road’s development and abandonment are indicative of the wayward human society that uses and abuses land.

“Back in the bus he had felt, in anticipation, a bursting, orgasmic delight of freedom. But it was not so. He felt miserable. His shoulders ached, and now that he was relaxed and stretched out he wasn’t sleepy. He wondered, ‘Won’t I ever be happy? Isn’t there anything to do?’”

Juan’s internal struggle between what he perceives as his potential freedom and his entrapment in a boring life is emblematic of the human experience. Steinbeck uses Juan’s journey through fantasy and back to his regular life as an exemplar of The Stasis of Human Existence. Juan’s pursuit of happiness is complicated by his attachment to routine comfort and his unrealistic dream of running away to Mexico. Juan is ultimately unhappy because he is aware of his unhappiness and also aware that he won’t do anything to change his state of mind.

“And now little irrelevancies invaded her mind. If he’s an Indian or has Indian blood, how is it someone can creep up on him? She held her eye corners back to bring his face into focus. It was a scarred, leathery face, but it was a good face, she thought. The lips were full and humorous, but they were kind. He would be gentle while he was with a woman. He might not stay with her for very long, but he would be nice to her.”

Mildred’s attraction to Juan is based on a racist objectification of what she perceives as Juan’s exoticism. Mildred desires adventure and change, and she projects that desire onto Juan. She has no way of knowing if he is gentle or nice with women, but she places her hopes for her development onto his sexual treatment of her. This is evidence of how people project their desires onto one another in fruitless attempts to change themselves.

“All the cave entrances were now protected from the rain by the high overhang of the cliff itself. The caves were not entirely the inventions of nature, for bands of Indians hunting antelopes had rested here and lived here, and had even fought forgotten battles here. Later it became a stopping place for white men riding through the country, and the men had enlarged the caves and built their fires under the overhang.”

The rural setting of this scene is marked by the man-modified caves. The presence of these caves suggests that the characters in Steinbeck’s novel are but a small group of people who have passed through here throughout history. This evokes history as inescapable and cyclical; just as other people sheltered in the caves on their journeys, so too will more people journey through the caves in the future. Human beings are therefore connected throughout time by their waywardness.

“Only the large, weathering word ‘Repent’ was still clear. The wandering preacher had let himself down with a rope to put up that great word in black paint, and he had gone away rejoicing at how he was spreading God’s word in a sinful world.”

The “repent” sign on the hill where the bus is stuck in a ditch is a symbolic message to characters who struggle with internal guilt, such as Elliott Pritchard. The “repent” sign is old and weathered, suggesting—like the caves—that many people passed through this old road seeking change, development, and even salvation. The setting of the hill is marked by an ominous tone thanks to this sign that operates as both a threat and a directive.

“Mr. Pritchard found that he was getting impatient with this young man. ‘There’s a kind of cynicism running around the country,’ he said sharply. ‘It seems to me young people have lost their faith in America. Our ancestors had faith.’ ‘They had to eat,’ Ernest said. ‘They didn’t have time for faith. People don’t work much any more. They’ve got time for faith.’”

This quote highlights a generational difference between the American men who fought in World War II and those who didn’t. Elliott sees that his country is changing, but he is averse to those changes because it would require a shift in his success and stability. In contrast, Ernest has experienced war and can empathize with the cultural and economic shifts that defined the United States in the mid-20th century. Although this novel is not one of Steinbeck’s activist pieces, this quote highlights the influence of society and politics on the human psyche.

“He was too old to accommodate the personality change of his stroke and the new nature it gave him.”

Van Brunt is characterized by the bleak nature of his situation, particularly his lack of control over his health, mortality, or personality. The shift in his nature prompted by his strokes indicates that no one is in total control of who they are. Van Brunt is aware of his flaws, but can’t change them. This highlights Steinbeck’s theme of the stasis of human existence. This quote also suggests that at a certain age, people view themselves as incapable of further change and resign themselves to who they are.

“Norma looked at him in amazement. She had never known this kind of abject pain in anyone but herself. No one ever needed Norma for sympathy or reassurance. A bubble of warmth burst in her and a kind of gratefulness.”

This quote provides a small moment of hope that true human connection can be developed. Norma’s capacity for empathy is indicative of her good nature. She understands loneliness and appreciates vulnerability. This quote highlights the importance of finding people who can extend kindness and understanding.

“‘Look, kid,’ she said. ‘You’ll just have to believe this until you find it out for yourself—everybody’s a tramp some time or other. Everybody. And the worst tramps of all are the ones that call it something else.’”

Camille gains wisdom from dealing with the darker side of human nature for a long time. Her beauty is a privilege and a curse, which helps her learn that every individual engages in self-focused or negative behaviors sometimes. She doesn’t mean “tramp” in the literal sense of the word, but she implies here that every person sometimes negotiates and sacrifices their ethics and values for success and upward mobility.

“The rose afterglow was turning pale pink and a duskiness settled on the valley. Juan set his jack against a post and under the flange of the wheel rim, and he lifted one side of the bus. As the wheel rose, Pimples filled the hole under the tires with rocks.”

The physical setting of the sky going from dark rain clouds to pink dusk parallels the characters’ internal conflicts. When the weather is miserable, the characters are tortured by their conflicts. When the weather lightens up, the characters return to practicality. The bus is freed from the ditch because all the characters decide in their own way to get on with their lives and leave their fantasies of change and development behind.