The Carreta is the second of B. Traven's six Jungle Novels which together form an epic of the birth of the Mexican Revolution. The young Indian who is the hero of The Carreta is an ox-cart driver. More sophisticated than most of his companions who work in debt-slavery in the great mahogany plantations, Andres can read and hopes to go back to his wife. But he labors with no awareness of how really impossible this is. Pressing down on him is the plight of his father, who was also sold to the monteria. Andres believes he can never return to his wife until he repays his father's debt. Traven's purpose in the Jungle Novels is to describe the conditions of a people who are ripe for revolt, and to trace the beginnings of consciousness which result in the determination to revolt.

In The Carreta he brings his remarkable narrative talents to bear on the coming of age of Andres and the oppressive world in which he finds he must make his way. "Traven is a very great writer . His work must be read." New York Times Book Review.