Who is Monsieur Ci Git from Travels with Charley: In Search of America and what is their importance?

Monsieur Ci Git is an elderly White man whom Steinbeck meets while eating his lunch at an overlook of the Mississippi River. The name of the elderly man is a play on the word ci-git, an old way of expressing "here lies" on grave markers. The old man expects death to come soon. He gives his perspective on the racial upheavals in the South, which boils down to him not caring. This is a problem for the younger generations to handle. Whether a real encounter or imagined, Monsieur Ci Git represents the Old South.