The Breakfast (an analysis)

John Steinback begins this story in an interesting way. He is being nostalgic and talks about

some past memories. He describes that he recalls this event again and again but does not know

the reason behind this. He don’t know the reason that why he recalls that again and again, but

one thing is obvious, that “this thing fills me with pleasure”, and the reason for this pleasure is

unknown, which give this story a mysterious and curious touch in the beginning. But one reads

with a hope that perhaps we may get some clue about this reason of pleasure.

Narration style of this story is such that it vividly describes minute details including the colors of

dawn and the colors of character’s attires. He tells us that it was a cold morning when “ eastern

mountains were black-blue, but behind them the light stood up faintly colored at the mountain

rims with a washed red, growing colder, grayer, and darker as it went up and overhead until, at a

place near the west, it merged with pure night”. This description helps us in understanding the

effect of that morning on narrator’s mind. It was such a deep influence that every scene, along

with every color got imprinted into narrator’s mind.

He was passing through country side when he happened to see a tent of gypsies there. He saw a

young woman with a baby in her arm, cooking at a cracked, rusty and old iron stove. The

narrator observes the lady’s movements with profound attention. He was inspired by the way she

was doing her work and at the same time handling the child with absolute ease. Narrator

describes the color of fire, the orange fire rising from the cracked stove making reflections on the

tent which were quite appealing for the author. The Narrator moved towards the stove to warm

himself.
In this narration writer has described the things in such a way that we can notice that how deeply

engrossed he was in that situation. His all senses have been involved in the story. He uses all his

five senses to describe the story and scenes which he encountered. This story is a good

description and narration as writer has vividly described the scenes and it enhances the

captivating effect of narration.

If we look at characters of this story, we find them flat characters. They remain unchanged from

the beginning to the end. There are five characters in the story, including child and narrator

himself. The members of the family of cotton pickers represent village people who are kind

hearted people. When they see a stranger in cold weather, they just not allow him to warm

himself before the fire, but also offer him food which the narrator accepts. Their generosity

shows that it is a quality which is not limited to wealthy people only, in fact any person have this

virtue. Then we see that though they are not rich characters, they do not have any permanent

source of income, they work on wages which they sometimes get and at other times they do not

get any job to make money, but even then they are content people. It looks as if this story is a

criticism at materialistic society that despite its all cruelty and selfish attitude, which is a natural

outcome of materialistic society, there are people who do not allow circumstances to deprive

them of good qualities like generosity and kindness. Though the cotton pickers did not have

regular job, but when they got that they did not hesitate to offer it to a stranger, so this kindness

of them was a quality which impressed the narrator.

Another quality which he noticed was that despite all the hardships in life, and despite all the

poverty, they did not lose faith in God, they were thankful to Him. Poverty is a test of a person’s

faith and loyalty to God, and those cotton pickers proved their loyalty and thankfulness to God.
Now when narrator says that there was some element of great beauty there that makes the rush of

warmth when he thinks of it, this is because of the qualities of kindness, generosity, contentment

of those people which makes him feel so. The way they people treated him and offered their help

is commendable for narrator. So we get to know that everybody is fighting a battle of his own

survival, but those who show kindness and generosity towards others, they are always

remembered in good words and their acts of kindness are always valued and appreciated.

Kindness of a person has a magic in it, and it is always valued and appreciated.