Peter's Journey To America Character Analysis

Peter went on a journey to learn about how different his perspective of America is to others. Peter was in search of the redeeming qualities of America, which aided in him having a change of opinion and a change of character. He ultimately learned about himself in the process, as both the friends and enemies he met along the way, help form his ideals and opinions. Peter decided to begin his journey to learn about America and see it in a different light than from view he was raised seeing. America seemed like an awful place to him and considered leaving the country to live somewhere else. “Everytime I watched TV or read a newspaper, it seemed like the end of the world.” (Jenkins 13,14) Later, Peter gets advice from an old friend, Stu, who
Soon after, Peter’s stereotypes and sheltered ideals were proven wrong, as he mentioned “In West Virginia I expected to find hillbillies rocking their lives away on the front porches of leaning shacks, so I was taken off guard to see White Sulphur Springs.This town was a classic in-the-middle-of-nowhere place, but there sat a multimillion-dollar resort with all the class of any grand hotel in Paris or New York.” (Jenkins 49) Peter, upon meeting, thought Mary Elizabeth would be inhospitable and be rude towards him. He was proven wrong as she offered to let him stay for as long as he needed. “I believe in God. And I think he sent you here ta test aw faith. So, from now on, if you want to, you can stay with us” (Mary Elizabeth 121) Barbara and Peter needed to see a sign to stay together, yet Peter was wary and wasn’t sure if he would even see a sign. Yet they do see a sign that shows they can remain together. Peters incorrect ideas about the rest of the United States came from his high class living standard growing up as a child. Once he goes out and experiences these areas in person, he learns he was wrong about what he originally and his journey became a learning experience for him.

At first people often thought Peter was being completely absurd when he would state that he is walking across america. Later on,
At the time this book was written, America was currently involved in the Cold war and the Vietnam war, which Peter disagrees with strongly. “And Communism? Whatever that was, it couldn't be worse than the capitalist pig warmongers who ran this country” (Jenkins 14) As Peter goes on his journey, he sees America’s true beauty of its land and the diversity of the people who live there. This book can be used as a sort of comparison point of then and now. Currently, America has its arms full with problems ranging from large debt and the pollution and other environmental decay going on and a slew of other problems. Peter’s solution to dealing with these stresses is to head out and connect with nature yet, as time goes on, that will be less and less likely. This book helps compare then and now and raises the questions of how will The United States be in the future, and how much larger the differences between the time period in the book and