Unnamed section, p. 17 Summary and Analysis

This chapter begins by introducing the reader to Tex, the mechanic of the crew, and Tony, the owner and captain of the Western Flyer. Born in Texas, Tex loves diesel engines and sees them as pure, logical, perfect mechanical entities. During the voyage, he lives and breathes by the sound of the engine, as if it is his own heart-beat. Tony, the captain, loves the rightness of all things and abhors wrongness. He is a serious person, not given to laughter, but occasionally to outbursts of anger if he perceives a wrong action or argument taking place. He takes no chances and prefers certainty to variables. It is easy to see from the descriptions of these two men the high regard in which Steinbeck and Ricketts hold them.

In contrast, what follows is a lengthy, emotional, and...