John Steinbeck, “Flight”

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“Flight” first appeared in Steinbeck’s short story collection

The Long Valley

in 1938, and describes the maturation process of a young Mexican-American boy named Pepe Torres. Although he is nineteen years old when the story opens, Pepe is relatively immature for his age. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Pepe spends most of his time playing with his dead father’s switchblade and entertaining his younger siblings Emilio and Rosy, Mama Torres, who has been a widow for ten years, still relies on him to fulfill the role of dependable masculine figure for the whole family. Nevertheless, as she compares him to a wide variety of animals including a lazy cow, a lazy coyote and a foolish chicken, Steinbeck’s text also indicates that Mama is very much aware that Pepe is not yet fully…

1364 words

Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "“Flight”". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 November 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=25291, accessed 19 March 2024.]

25291 “Flight” 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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