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Shelby Markham

Grunert

English 100

07 Feb 2011

John Steinbeck: Afraid to Leave Home?

A person may literally leave his hometown, but in all reality his emotional well-being

resides within the location in which he grew up. For example, John Steinbeck, author of Of Mice

and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Pearl, had a life-long connection with the Salinas

Valley. The Salinas Valley, being his hometown, was the setting of many of his works; however,

the time period in which he experienced adulthood also inspired many of his novels.

John Steinbeck’s early life, spent in the Salinas Valley, greatly influenced his later career.

Steinbeck was born to Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, a former teacher, and John Ernst Steinbeck II,

the manager of a flour mill, on February 27, 1902. Steinbeck was the third of four children, and

the only boy. John was born and raised in the Salinas Valley, which is a long and narrow valley

of agricultural land, that is bordered by the Gabilon Mountains, the Santa Lucia range, and the

Monterey Bay. Steinbeck found most of his material for his fiction within the agricultural valleys

of California, after all, in Of Mice and Men, In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath, the

main settings reside in the area where Steinbeck spent his childhood years (Bruccoli and Layman

283). Steinbeck’s novels Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, and Sweet Thursday frequently mention

their location along the waterfront of Monterey Bay in the Monterey Peninsula. Moreover,

Steinbeck may have formed an attachment to literature because his parents often took trips into

San Francisco to “[expose] their children to culture,” and frequently attended the theatre there
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(Reuben 1). Steinbeck’s father was the treasurer of Monterey County, allowing for John to be

frequently exposed to the nature throughout the county on the peninsula. Although a hometown

may provide an inspiration to many authors, the time period in which they write provide just as

much inspiration.

As a child, Steinbeck grew up with little money, and suffering through the Great

Depression and the Dust Bowl had a major impact on his writing. The stock market crash of

1929 led to collapsed banks, and closed businesses. John Steinbeck used this catastrophe as a

ticket to express his concerns about society, and in 1934 Steinbeck gathered information from a

labor union consisting of migrant workers. His novel In Dubious Battle, published in 1936,

exemplified the hardships that the farmers out west faced. Not only did the economy spiral

downward; but the extreme drought of the 1930’s, known as the Dust Bowl, provided for

additional hardships (Harmon). Throughout the Dust Bowl, lasting until 1936, farmers were

forced to sell their homes and farms, and migrate to find work. The devastation helped to

lengthen the effects of the Depression, which were felt worldwide (Nelson). Steinbeck compared

the troubled farmers to ants in his novel In Dubious Battle, stating that, “the dispossessed were

drawn west… They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless-restless as ants, scurrying

to find work to do… like ants scurrying for work…”(qtd. in Nelson). Along with the time period

when Steinbeck wrote, the literary movement in which his mediums were published helped

contribute to his unique writing style.

John Steinbeck produced the majority of his works within the modernist time period,

which stemmed off new technological advances. During the beginning of the twentieth century,

life became extremely different from that of previous times. Society’s change during the early

1900’s was provoked by the inclusion of modern technology, and the idea of convenience
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(VanSpanckeren). According to Kathryn VanSpanckeren, traditional themes and subject matter

became rejected during this time period, forcing authors to focus more on a characters failure to

succeed. This is true with John Steinbeck, in that his novelette Of Mice and Men, George and

Lennie aspire to be greater than what society will let them. The two conspire to become rich

while on the ranches on the Salinas River Valley, and open their own farm within one or two

acres of land, however, the two never come within reach of their goal. Modernists believed that

literature held an importance in the scientific modern world, and with the improvements in

technology and communication, they believed there needed to be a change in the works in order

preserve the vitality (Matterson). A new style of writing, called the stream-of-consciousness

technique, used internal dialogue as a method of deeper insight (VanSpanckeren). Instead of

remaining at one time period throughout the whole book, the technique allowed for the reader to

be exposed to multiple years of a character’s lifetime (Matterson). This is also true in the

novelette Of Mice and Men, in that Steinbeck takes the reader back to the time when Lennie gets

accused of rape. The insight to the characters life experiences help to reveal character traits, also

relating to the book. When Lennie begins to panic after killing Curley’s wife, he has a flashback

of a time when he felt comfortable under the care of his Aunt Clara. The new found technique of

writing, combined with the time period, and the history behind the author all show within the

author’s work.

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, two men struggle to make it through the times of

the depression, relating to that of that author’s struggles. George, the main care giver of the

mentally ill Lennie, took responsibility for the massive man after the death of Lennie’s Aunt

Clara. Lennie, not knowing the strength capacity he holds, tends to get himself in trouble with

the frequent mistakes he makes. When the two men start a job at a ranch in the Salinas River
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Valley, the hometown of Steinbeck, Lennie’s work ethics become clear to the other men.

Lennie’s strength and willingness to work could resemble that of the farmers during the Dust

Bowl that were not allowed to work due to conditions that they could not control, just as Lennie

cannot control his disability. Steinbeck expresses his concern with society’s acceptance of

outsiders through the characters of Curley’s wife, who is never named, Lennie, and Crooks, the

African American horse handler. All three characters are looked down upon by those who

observe them. The role of women during the early 20th century is expressed by Steinbeck, in that

he kept all of the female characters anonymous throughout the novel, with the exception of Aunt

Clara. Steinbeck infers that during his time period, women existed to simply assist men, and

recognition was only accomplished if they aided a man in some way. Even with a disability,

Lennie is still held higher in society’s ranks, than that of a woman. The lack of women on the

ranch also proves their position, because the men on the ranch are not successful by any means,

and with the exception of Curley’s wife, there were no women on the ranch to further their

success. In a conversation within the bunkers, George reveals the history between him and

Lennie to Slim, another worker that is portrayed as wise and superior. The conversation explains

the history behind the two, also explaining Steinbeck’s concern with Social Darwinism. The idea

of the strong attacking the weak had been present in society, even within life of George, until the

character experienced a moral awakening. The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize

winning novel, also reflects upon the events throughout Steinbeck’s life.

The Grapes of Wrath, although both loathed and loved, may be Steinbeck’s best example

of his life experiences providing inspiration to his works. Tom Joad, an ex-con, makes his way

home from a penitentiary, using the method of hitchhiking, when he runs into his childhood

preacher. The crime Tom committed, which was killing a man with a shovel, and the stories that
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the pastor shares with Tom, prove the corruption in society. Reverend John Casy, Tom Joad’s

childhood pastor, explains the lecherous thing he did during his time as a reverend, and explains

that he is not a pastor anymore. The pastor’s leaving shows that during the modernist time

period, the idea of religion no longer sufficed the human desire to commit crimes. As they make

their way home to the old Joad farm in Oklahoma, they discover that the town is abandoned. The

Dust Bowl had a great impact in the southern plains of the west, including Oklahoma, explaining

the desertion (Nelson). The banks, due to the stock market crash of 1929, forced the tenant

farmers off of their lands, where they were replaced with tractors according to Muley Graves,

and old friend that Tom and Casy run into along the way. The tractors made farming faster,

cheaper, and more convenient to landowners, compared to the work of an entire family when the

cost of living was incorporated. The technology improvement confirmed the modernists’ view of

the mechanized society, by showing that traditional customs, such as farming by hand, were

being replaced with more convenient and profitable methods. The role of women is also defined

within this novel, in that the Rose of Sharon, a cousin to Tom Joad, provides life for a man in

need with the use of her breast milk. Steinbeck also uses his experience with three sisters to

describe the emotional changes a woman goes through during a pregnancy, with the use of Rose

of Sharon. The Pearl, a novella of Steinbeck’s, expresses his belief in the corruption of his

society along with the use of Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath.

The Pearl expresses the hardships during the depression, and the manipulation of the

weak by the strong. When Coyotito, the son of a Mexican that dives for pearls off the Baja

Peninsula for a living, is stung by a scorpion society proves its cruelty. The doctor will not treat

Coyotito, because of the poverty he originates from. In efforts to save his son’s life, Kino, the

father, sets out to find the biggest Pearl in the sea, to provide the doctor with enough money to
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treat his son. The Darwinist way of thinking was also present within Steinbeck’s Of Mice and

Men, and The Grapes of Wrath, in that the strong dominate and discriminate against the weak.

Within Christian literature, a scorpion resembles evil, and when the scorpion sets fear upon

Kino’s family, Steinbeck is once again referring to the modernists’ belief that religion is phasing

out of society. Kino also expresses moments where he hears music; connecting his personal

soundtrack with the stream-of-consciousness technique, in that readers are allowed to personally

connect with character during dramatic scenes. The beating of Juana, Kino’s wife, after she

attempts to remove the pearl from the household, proves the severity of the unappreciative men

during Steinbeck’s time period. When the woman threatens the success of her husband, by

wanting to throw the pearl back into the ocean, he reacts with forcing violence upon her, even

after her point of the pearl having evil capabilities is proven.

John Steinbeck resorted back to the comforts of his home town in many ways throughout

his writing career; however, the innocence he experienced as a child was not included, but

instead replaced with the corruption he saw later in life. The Salinas Valley provided multiple

settings for novels throughout his career; however the negative swings he threw in suggest that

as he became older he realized the problems with society, and developed beliefs against them.

The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl had a major impact on his writing, allowing for The

Grapes of Wrath to award him with a Pulitzer Prize. Steinbeck held many modernist beliefs,

varying from the world becoming too mechanized, to the fading of religion from everyday lives.

The question being, what will the world become when technology replaces the comforts a person

feels in their own home?

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Works Cited

Bruccoli and Layman. “John Steinbeck.” Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography.

Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Inc., 1989. Print.

Harmon, Robert B. “A Brief Chronology of Events in John Steinbeck’s Life.” The Martha

Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies. Web. 11 Jan 2011.

Matterson, Stephen. “1890-1940’s MODERNISM.” The Essential Glossary: American

Literature. 2003. Web. 14 Mar 2011.

Mays, Joshua. “John Steinbeck.” Center for Working-Class Studies. Youngtown State

University, Fall 2005. Web. 21 Jan 2011.

Nelson, Cary. “About The Dust Bowl.” Modern American Poetry. University of Illinois. Web.

21 Jan 2011.

Reuben, Paul P. “John Steinbeck (1902-1968): A Brief Literary Biography.” Pal: Perspectives

in American Literature. California State University Stanislaus, 8 Oct 2000. Web. 21 Jan

2011.

VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. Outline of American Literature. Eds. Howard Cincotta and George

Clack. Nov. 1998. U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information

Programs. Web. 29 April 2006.