Crossing state lines one is aware of this change of language. The New England states use a terse form of instruction, a tight-lipped, laconic style sheet, wasting no words and few letters. New York State shouts at you the whole time. Do this, Do that. Squeeze left. Squeeze right. Every few feet an imperious command. In Ohio the signs are more benign. They offer friendly advice, and are more like suggestions. Nearly all have abandoned the adverb for the adjective. Drive Slow. Drive safe. (62) .
I find it very interesting how in depth Steinbeck goes into about state titles and highway signs. Why does he feel he needs to be so explicit here? Is he a bit disturbed by how ridiculous these signs are? I believe he has a deeper purpose behind this rather than just to inform us of different signs. One of the reasons he thinks there are such ridiculous signs could be because the states are trying to hold onto something that sets them apart from one another, such as the multiple birthplace claims. Stating so many examples pounds into the readers head that even in some of the simplest forms of communication, our country, and its individual states, have their own way of doing things. .
Here, when speaking of Montana, you can see how Steinbeck claims that a regions landscape may influence a society's demeanor:.
Its people did not seem afraid of shadows in a John Birch Society sense. The calm of the mountains and the rolling grasslands had gotten into the inhabitants. It was hunting season when I drove through the state. The men I talked too seemed to me not moved to a riot of seasonal slaughter but simply to be going out to kill edible meat. Again my attitude may be informed by love, but it seemed to me that the towns were places to live in rather than nervous hives. People had time to pause in their occupations to undertake the passing art of neighborliness. (121).
Steinbeck uses strong adjectives to describe how the land "has gotten into- the people of that region conforming their culture and everyday lives.
