1)Theme: Light representing the good that fights evil (David Wyatt)
• Driving force to fight the dark
◦ Due to common fear of the dark
‣ Seen through A Life in Letters
◦ Uses very simple symbols to portray message.
‣ Light overcomes dark as good should overcome evil
2)Style: Incorporating Spanish Tradition into American Literature (Mimi Gladstein)
• The Red Pony
◦ Fought Spanish predjudice
◦ Used Spanish language “paisano”
• Tortilla Flat
◦ Uses common Spanish words “vieja” “tia”
• The Pearl
◦ Worked with a Mexican film company while completing publishing to ensure authenticity of Hispanic culture.
• Used to broaden audience and interest bilinguals.
3)Theme: Intolerance in Steinbecks Literature (simon Curtis)
• Often repeats theme of predjudice in Society
◦ Lies beneath us all
‣ Grapes of wrath develops the Joad family -farmers who lies were ruined in Oklahoma.
• Received out West with prejudice
◦ Steinbeck follows with their reaction to the predjudice
‣ Send message that prejudice is in the person not all people
4)Technique : Steinbecks use of Naturalism (Woodburn O. Ross)
• Emphasized the reality of the times and hardships characters were going through.
◦ FAvoided use of religion as he did not like to think of ends
‣ He liked his characters to be thinking for the moment.
• Often his characters only virtues were natural law
‣ Characters accepted life as it was and tried to make the most of it
• Reflected in himself trying to make the most of life.
5)Theme: Laborer hardships and social injustice (S. Muhilan)
• Of mice and men
◦ George and Lenny are two farm laborers who are migrants
‣ Shows perspective of migrants trying to follow dreams.
• Grapes of Wrath
◦ Shows extreme poverty, suffering, depression and a family trying to make the most of it
‣ Struggle between inequality of the rich and the poor
• The Pearl
◦ Fisherman and his Pearl
‣ Represent salvation as a result of renunciation
• Learns lessons from own success and misfortune
• Give us glimpses of life at time.
6)Technique: Steinbecks use of Natural violence (James Mumford )
• Steinbeck often naturalized violence in order to present it as a. Historical necessity
◦ He tried to represent lifestyle of the present in the most genuine way possible
• The Log
◦ Presses analogy between natural and human catastrophe
• East of Eden
◦ Violence naturalized through detached narration compared to his vivid narration in deliberate violence.
‣ Made to sound as though they were fate.
7)Technique: Steinbeck Use of aberrational, descriptive violence (Mumford)
• Steinbeck was fascinated by violence and many of his characters were often deliberately violent
◦ Lennie OMAM
◦ Raymond, Pastures of Heaven
• He uses these descriptive violent scenes in order to give a glimpse into the life of the characters
• Wanted to be descriptive so that they would grab the reader
◦ “I want to rip a readers nerves to rags. I won’t have him satisfied.”
8)Style: Argument against emergence of Corporate Capitalism (Cyrus Ernesto Zirakzadeh)
• Steinbeck uses Grapes of Wrath to promote a present day issue
◦ The Joads are evicted from the land they live in and rather than submit to the machine work which was common at the time in Oklahoma, they head for California
‣ Confront a modern economy
‣ They are harassed for their rural roots and being poor
• Shows how factory work was the thing now and if you were not modernized you were left behind.
9)Style: Steinbecks fight for Social Justice (Zirakzadeh)
• Throughout his works, he shows his characters perservere for their own good
◦ Grapes or Wrath
‣ Poor family who moves in search of prosperity after kicked off farm
‣ Looks down upon and society and not set up for success
‣ Try to work toward better life in only way they know possible
◦ Uses relationship between biological needs and inherited norms
◦ He believed that local environment inevitable changes over time and in order to prosper humans must tinker with their beliefs and inheritances
10)Technique: Steinbecks personal experience through works (Zirakzadeh)
• Grew up in Salinas, California
◦ Witnessed his parents struggle to climb the social ladder
‣ Emotionally scarred Steinbecks father
• Parents believed in virtues of hard work and self discipline
◦ Seen throughout works
• Wealthier folks looked down on his family
• His mother was very progressive
◦ Led him to pursue social justice in his stories
11)Technique: Jesus Symbolism through Grapes of Wrath (Rachel McCoppin)
• Steinbeck applied the idea of an individual spiritual transcendence, meaning anyone could elevate their spirit to the level of Christ
◦ The characters fully identify with and embrace the hardships they are undergoing
‣ Unlike christ, they do n t have recourse to transcending beyond the hardships
‣ Death of Casey meant to resemble Christ’s passion
• “Your don’t know what you’re doin” (386)-> “they know not what they do” (Luke 23.34)
‣ Many characters described in Superhuman type ways
• “hazel eyes seemed to have experienced all possible tragedy and to have mounted pain and suffering like steps into a high calm and a superhuman understanding" (Steinbeck, Grapes 74).
• Cast described as "a spirit, not human any more, a voice out of the ground,"(82)
12)Theme: Steinbeck Environmental activism (Lloyd Willis)
• Steinbeck was known as an environmental activist and we could see activism through his works
◦ Farming in Grapes of Wrath
‣ We see the abuse that the farmers receive when moving west.
‣ Described the rough conditions that went on with the arid conditions of the farms.
‣ Eventually evicted from the farm
◦ His characters were often judged based on their occupation
‣ Lennie and George
◦ His stories often pertain to the middle class and lower middle class
13)Theme: Tragedy in OMAM (Bert Carrdullo)
• Not quite George’s killing of Lennie but more so George’s love for Lennie that restricted him from many opportunities.
◦ George has opportunity to settle down on farm with Candy but prefers to stay with Lennie
‣ Shows that he can have better life, but denies it in order to stay with Lennie
◦ George realizes after he killed Lennie that he has missed all of his opportunity for a better life with Candy
‣ Lennie served as his emotional attachment
‣ George’s anger of missed opportunity built up leading him to kill Lennie
• Leads George to more suffering as he is now alone without Lennie
14)Style: Using Personal Experience in Writing (Dunphy)
• By 1960, Steinbeck is said to have grown “disenchanted with his country”
◦ He thought consumerism and selfishness had run rampant
◦ Wars and violence had distorted view of how to make peace
◦ Believed the Declaration Of Independence had not been truly fulfilled
‣ In Travels with Charley we see this true upset ness with society
• “American cities are like badger holes, ringed with trash- all of them- surrounded by piles of wrecked and rusting automobiles, and almost smothered with rubbish”.
◦ Often Steinbeck wrote his characters going through the Same circumstances which he underwent growing up. (22)
15)Theme: Equality among races (Dunphy)
• Steinbecks beliefs in equality are seen thought out literature
◦ Travels with Charley
‣ Steinbeck argues with a “ dear southern friend” for the theory of equal but separate
‣ Also seen when Steinbeck refuses to give a ride to the racist in his car.
◦ Unordinary for white man to take pro civil rights stance during 1950s
◦ Grows increasingly enraged over racism he experiences while traveling in the south
16)Style: Literary Journalism of John Steinbeck (Jan Whitt)
• Although most view Steinbecks works as fiction, many authors consider his accounts as literary journalism
◦ He didn’t invent the experiences in his works, he lived them
‣ Grapes of Wrath
• Drew Inspiration from Steinbecks journey along Route 66 in 1937
◦ Although characters may not have been authentic, they were inspired by real people and placed in authentic conditions to what was the present day Oklahoma
‣ Steinbeck had experience as a real journalism
• Covered WW2 for Newsweek
• Helped him develop a real relationship with nature and the people around
17)Theme: Identity Crisis (Cliff Lewis)
• Many of Steinbecks writings feature characters in crisis because of conflict between cultures
◦ East of Eden
‣ Conflict between man and woman
‣ Right and Wrong
◦ Grapes of Wrath
‣ Farmers dealing with changing environment
‣ Forced West
• Liked to write about minorities
◦ Mexicans in the United States
◦ Indians in the US
• Maybe he dealt with identity crisis.
18)Style: “Visionary Style” (Cliff Lewis)
• Steinbeck tried to find an organic means of expression for each book he wrote
◦ Fabular in The Pearl
◦ Documentary style in GOW
◦ Picaresque in Tortilla Flat
• Often featured dreams, the unconscious, recurring myths, and symbolic characters in works
• Steinbeck once noted that realism is the surface form for his interest in psychology and philosophy.
19)Technique: Appealing to the Proletariat (Peter Yancey)
• During the 1930s into the 1940s the Proletariat, or middle class, attempted to gain more power as many of them work hard labor jobs
◦ Steinbeck saw alienation of both land and people as the main problem in the country
‣ “Man hates something in itself. He has been able to defeat every natural obstacle but himself he cannot win over unless he kills every individual.” (Benson and Loftus 197)
◦ Literary editor Edmund Richards said that Grapes of Wrath was the greatest Proletariat novel written at the time
‣ Showed deep sympathy for the working class
20)Style: Steinbeck consistency in Writing (Frederic I. Carpenter)
• Although Steinbeck uses a variety of backgrounds for his characters, his fiction always describes the interplay between dream and reality
◦ Describe the successive phases
‣ Dream of conquest
‣ Then dream of escape
‣ Finally settlement and ownership.
◦ Some novels the characters achieve these goals through courage and active intelligence
‣ The Long Valley
◦ In some novels, the characters fail due to irresponsibility or defective mentality
‣ Of Mice and Men
• Characters dreams are developed and if enough effort, achieved