Steinbeck
"I never wrote two books alike", once
said
John Steinbeck (Shaw, 10). That may be true, but I think that he
wrote many of
his novels and short stories based on many of the same views.
He often focused
on social problems, like the "haves" verses the "have nots",
and made
the reader want to encourage the underdog. Steinbeck’s back ground
and concern
for the common man made him one of the best writers for human
rights. John
Steinbeck was born in Salians, California and spent most of
his life there or
around Salians, because of that he often modeled his
stories and the characters
around the land he loved and the experiences he
encountered. He lived in Salians
until 1919, when he left for Stanford
University, he only enrolled in the
courses that pleased him - literature,
creative writing and majoring in Marine
Biology. He left in 1925, without
a degree. Even though he didn’t graduate his
books showed the results of his
five years spent there. His books display a
considerable reading of the Greek
and Roman historians, and the medieval and
Renaissance fabalists and the
biological sciences (Shaw 11). He then moved to
New York and tried his
hand as a construction worker and as a reporter for the
American. (Covici
, xxxv). Steinbeck then moved back to California and lived
with his wife at
Pacific Grove. In 1934, he wrote for the San Franciso News, he
was assigned
to write several articles about the 3,000 migrants flooded in at
Kings
County. The plight of the migrant workers motivated him to help and
document
their struggle. The money he earned from the newspaper allowed him to
travel
to their home and see why their reason for leaving and traveled
to
California with them, sharing in with their hardships (Steinbeck,
127). Because
John Steinbeck was able to travel with the Okies, he was
able to accurately
portray them and their struggles. Each book that he wrote
had settings in the
places where he has either lived or wanted to live. He
presented the land as it
was. The characters in his stories experienced
floods, drought, and other
natural disasters, while in the Salians Valley
(Shaw, 5). What Steinbeck wrote
was very factual and in depth. He exhibited
his awareness of man and his
surroundings, in his early books, before people
ate, a pig had to be
slaughtered, and often that and before they ate, it had
to be cooked. Also when
a car broke down, the characters had to find parts,
and fixed it themselves
(Shaw, 13). Many people consider that John Steinbeck
novels are records of
social history. His books are the history of plain
people and society as a
whole, many of his books focused on the Great
Depression, Social Prejudice,
religion, and the automobile (Rundell, 4). He
may be considered as a
Sentimentalist, because of his concerns for the
common man, human values, for
warmth and love and understanding. The social
relevance of his writings reveals
him as a reformer (Covici, xxii). In his
novel The Pastures of Heaven, Steinbeck
brings up the issues of Japanese
Americans fitting into social groups, and in
East of Eden, he examines
the problems of intelligent and educated
Chinese-Americans in the
California setting. John Steinbeck only once seriously
considers the problems
of Negroes in Society. Crooks, the stable boy in Of Mice
and Men, was an
outcast and never destine to fit into the generally white
society of
ranching. Not only did Steinbeck recognize the -problems of
minorities and
racial prejudice, he also mentioned class prejudice. The
difference between
the "haves" verses the ‘have nots" was brought up in
the novel, The Grapes of
Wrath, usually the people who had any financial
stability hated the Okies,
who had none. Owners hated the Okies because they
were soft and the Okies
were strong, also the store keepers hated them because
the Okies had no money
to spend in their stores (Bowden, 12). The Grapes of
Wrath presents these
issues in the form of an epic and sums up the despair of
the early 1930’s.
The Joads experience: love, brotherhood, integrity, class
fear, power,
violence, and suspension, the same as every other migrant. Their
conflict was
a national epic, instead of a personal one. The parable of the
tortoise
crossing the road represents the people of the 1930’s, he is beaten
by the
sun, knocked around, and struggles, but probably reaches his
destination.
In his other stories, he also uses characters and symbols to
represent the
migrants of the 1930’s, and often makes his symbolism obvious.
The story of
the gophers in Cannery Row represents that you can’t have your
cake and eat it
too. In conclusion, John Steinbeck with his concern for man
and his environment,
and his broad background has made him a respected
author, and human rights
activist. His books are as relevant to us today as
they were sixty years ago,
and are also important as documentation of social
history.
Bibliography
Benet’s
Readers, Encyclopedia of
American Literature. 1991 ed. Bowden, Edwin T. The
Dungeon of the Heart.
New York, NY: The Mcmillan Company, 1961. Covici, Pacal
Jr. The Portable
Steinbeck. New York, NY: The Viking Press, 1963. McWillams,
Carey,
"California Pastoral", Antioch Review, March, 1942: 103-21.
Rundell,
Walter Jr. Steinbeck’s Image of the West, 4-17 Shaw, Peter.
"Steinbeck:
The Shape of a Career", Saturday Review, 8 February, 1969:
10-14. Steinbeck,
John. "A Primer on the Thirties". Esquire October 1973:
127-131, 364,
366. Walcutt Charles C. "Later Trends in Form: Steinbeck,
Hemingway, Dos
Passos", American Literary Naturalism: A Divided Stream.
University of
Minnesota, 1956: 258- 59. 268-69