What really happens in The Wayward Bus?
Some passengers board a bus, the bus gets stuck, they have an argument, and then arrive at their destination.
This isn’t a story about things, or happenings. It’s about people.
I want to say that this is a story about what it means to be human, but that’s such a grand phrase that I’m sure it would make Steinbeck turn in his grave.
Instead he explores the struggles that we have in ourselves. Our small acts of heroism - like asking people not to call us ‘Pimples’ just because we’re covered in acne - to our small acts of deviance, like trying to subtly proposition a woman and being too cowardly to admit to doing so.
The Wayward Bus settles down as a self-reflection of sorts. You see facets of yourself in the different characters, and understand the people around you through the characters. We see in Steinbeck a man that has not only fallen in love with 1930s California, but in love with the ordinary people around him and their endless complexity.