Ideas for my paper on Logs from the Sea of Cortez by Steinbeck?

I'll be starting this book today, and a 10 page paper will be due a little later on. It's for my class Philosophies of Interpretive Naturalists, which essentially covers the evolution of western civilization's perception on nature and wilderness. Being that this book has historical, naturalist, and philosophical aspects to it, I figured it would be a good one to pick. But I would really like to try to come up with (possibly with some help from you) a thesis for my paper as I begin to read it. As long as it covers the three aspects I mentioned earlier, it would be greatly appreciated if you threw some ideas at me...My professor is giving us the freedom to create our own, I'm just having a little trouble thinking of one. Thanks in advance for any help