Predators and Prey Theme Analysis

While the story opens in a peaceful domestic setting, there are indications from the beginning that “Flight” takes place in wild country. As Pepé travels farther and farther from home, the landscape around him becomes increasingly desolate and deadly, practically making him into a hunted animal himself. Every detail of the situation and the environment suggests that when people venture into the mountains, they’re no longer fully human; they become predators and prey. As Pepé flees and hides from the people hunting him down, he encounters literal predators such as mountain lions and wildcats, narrowly escaping their attention just as he tries to evade his human pursuers. Out in this wild place, there’s little meaningful difference between the kinds of creatures hunting him. As he crawls around in the brush and scrounges for food and water, Pepé becomes prey—a part of the natural landscape around him. This stripping away of his human identity is made even more literal as he slowly loses the clothing and objects that belonged to his father, until there’s hardly anything left but Pepé himself. This is the wild, savage world that he’s stepped into, in his accidental rush to become a man. Steinbeck’s detailed, brutal depiction of Pepé’s journey through the wilderness highlights the harsh realities of any young man’s coming of age and venturing into the outside world alone. There are few opportunities for nobility or heroism in the wasteland; for the most part, there are only the hunters and the hunted.