John Steinbeck Research Paper

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John Steinbeck Archie Parks HUM/266 June 17, 2011 Lauren Holmes John Steinbeck John Steinbeck (1902-1968), born in Salinas, California, came from a family of moderate means. He worked his way through college at Stanford University but never graduated. In 1925 he went to New York, where he tried for a few years to establish himself as a free-lance writer, but he failed and returned to California (Nobelprize.

org, 2011). Steinbeck did not have success with his early writings. Tortilla Flat a humorous story about Monterey Paisanos published in 1935 became his first well-known piece of work.

Early Influences As a boy growing up Steinbeck was inspired to be a writer by his mother. Steinbeck’s mother loved books and literature; she was a teacher and his earliest influence into writing. As Steinbeck got older he often cited Charles Darwin as the main influence in his career.

Charles Darwin intrigued Steinbeck; Steinbeck was amazed in the realism and naturalism of Darwin’s work. Steinbeck’s creativity primarily sparked by nature. He was very aware of his surroundings and many of the events of his life as well as social situations contributed to setting and plots for his novel.

Who Was John Steinbeck Influenced By

Most of his books took place during the period of the great depression. Artistic achievement Steinbeck liked to incorporate area surroundings into his writing.

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He often experimented with different styles of writing, like a play in novel format. He also used fabular, picaresque, and documentary styles as well. Steinbeck often wrote about poor people and how their lives were changed by their circumstances and used the layout of the land as an artistic style as well. His talents as a storyteller were unsurpassed. His engagement with the vital social issues of his day was worthy of the highest traditions of journalism.

He forged a muscular, plain prose style of immense emotional range. And in his major work, he created an enduring testament to society’s downtrodden, simple men and women confronting the demons of poverty, violence and bigotry – and refusing to yield (Kamiya, 1995). What makes Steinbeck’s style unique is his dual use of omniscient narration combined with a real empathy for his characters. Steinbeck’s strongest writing talent is in his use of characterization (Steinbeck, 2011). In all of his novels, OMAM included, we really feel like we know the characters. We are pulled into their situations that what they endure and have to overcome.

The plight of each character pulls at your heart strings and keeps the reader on the edge, never wanting to pause from the story. Steinbeck tried to find an organic means of expression for each book that he wrote. He considered his work to be experimental. He intentionally used a documentary style for The Grapes of Wrath, the fabular for The Pearl, the picaresque for Tortilla Flat, and so on. Generally he belongs to the myth-symbol school of the twenties. Dreams, the unconscious, recurring myths, symbolic characters–these qualities are characteristic of what Jung called the “visionary” style.

Realism, Steinbeck once noted, is the surface form for his interest in psychology and philosophy (Lewis, 2011). Impact on society John Steinbeck was one of very few United States writers to dabble in the realm of social problems. He attacked the issues and made them prominent in his writings. In the grapes of wrath he took on the depression and told the story of Oklahoma citizens who fled the dust bowl to migrate to California for work only to find themselves taken advantage of and forced to deal with unforeseen social and economic problems.

Steinbeck took on mental retardation, social prejudices and socially acceptable behavior with the character Lennie Small in the novel Of Mice and Men. In one of his last works East of Eden Steinbeck took on Good versus evil and in his final writing Travels with Charley Steinbeck wrote about his impressions during a three-month tour in a truck that led him through forty American states. He died in New York City in 1968. John Steinbeck is one of the 20th Century’s most significant writers, receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

Steinbeck’s influence and ideas on social justice for the economic underclass of American society can be clearly seen in the works of Bob Dylan and others (Woody Guthrie, Billy Brag, Bruce Springsteen and others) (Tuffey, 2004) Closing American novelist, story writer, playwright, and essayist. John Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. He is best remembered for THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1939), a novel widely considered to be a 20th-century classic. The impact of the book has been compared to that of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Steinbeck’s epic about the migration of the Joad family, driven from its bit of land in Oklahoma to California, provoked a wide debate about the hard lot of migrant laborers, and helped to put an agricultural reform into effect (Liukkonen, 2002). In Researching information for this paper I found it amazing that not everyone saw Steinbeck for the literary genius that he was. Many people overlooked Steinbeck’s writings considering them simple. Many of his fans do not believe that he received the credit that he was due and feel that he was overlooked and snubbed by some. This author personally loves the dynamic of each of Steinbeck’s stories.

The character stories along with social issues that were real, issues that pulled you in and made you think is what made Steinbeck standout and a true artistic Genius. John Steinbeck died of heart attack in New York on December 20, 1968. In the posthumously published THE ACTS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS (1976), Steinbeck turned his back on contemporary subjects and brought to life the Arthurian world with its ancient codes of honor. Steinbeck had started the work with enthusiasm but never finished it (Liukkonen, 2002). Steinbeck has transcended generations and his literary works entertain as much now as they have in the past.

Lastly I will leave you with these words from The Grapes of Wrath that truly show John Steinbeck’s writing Genius. “Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up in the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. ” (from The Grapes of Wrath) . References Kamiya, G. (1995, March 12). John steinbeck a brilliant new biography may get Salinas favorite son some over due respect in the literary world. Retrieved from http://www. sfgate. com/cgi-bin/article. cgi? f=/e/a/1995/03/12/style13230. dtl Lewis, C. (2011, June 16). John Steinbeck (1902-1968).

Retrieved from http://www9. georgetown. edu/faculty/bassr/health/syllabuild. iguide/steinbec. html Liukkonen, P. (2002). John Steinbeck (1902-1968). Retrieved from http://www. kjrjasto. sci. fi/johnstei. htm Nobelprize. org. (2011, June 21). The Nobel Prize in literature 1962 John Steinbeck. Retrieved from http://nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/literature/1962/steinbeck-bio. html Steinbeck, J. (2011). The Grapes of Wrath. Retrieved from http://www. enotes. com/grapes-of-wrath/author-biography Tuffey, D. (2004). John steinbeck;s view on personal ethics. Retrieved from http://www. ict. griffith. edu. au/davidt/steinbeck. htm