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John Steinbeck's Inspiration

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Steinbeck once said: “Down and dirty with the common man? You bet. The downtrodden, the hapless, those struggling just to eke by on the meagerness of the day?” This quote here describes Steinbeck’s character greatly, and even the characters he writes about his his 17 novels. Steinbeck is truly a man to think that he is no higher than anyone, and anyone else is the same level as him. Now when he mentions this so called “common men”, this describes Steinbeck’s characters in his stories. His characters were normal, his conflicts were normal as well; as any good, important story should be. John Steinbeck is an important American Author; this is shown through his life, works, and legacy.

It is important to understand John Steinbeck's upbringing, …show more content…

Steinbeck’s inspiration, as a kid, came from many different sources. One of the examples of his inspirations for one of his works. John Steinbeck said, in The East of Eden, “I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers.” In this instance he recalls his childhood, which later greatly inspired the way he decided to write as an author (Shillinglaw). When he was older, though, before Steinbeck had fully committed to be a writer, he worked as a manual laborer; which later influenced his works greatly, like The Grapes of Wrath ("John Steinbeck" famousauthors.org). Although as an adult, during his writing career, his main inspiration was from his friend Edward Ricketts. Ricketts was the main reason why Steinbeck had published so many books during the 1930’s (Shillinglaw). Over the years, before the “golden age” of Steinbeck’s works he wrote his first book The Cup of Gold in 1929. Although it was after Steinbeck was first successful with his novel called Tortilla Flat. From there he wrote two of the most famous books today, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. The Grapes of Wrath is about “a dispossessed Oklahoma family and their struggle to carve out a new life in California at the height of the Great Depression, the book captured the mood and angst of the nation during this time period.” The Grapes of Wrath, by far, was the most …show more content…

You should care about who John Steinbeck is, because he truly shaped American literature with his morals and values. His meanings with his works run deep with his realistic characters, and realistic social troubles that actually were happening. Now, think about the quote in the beginning of the story, and think about what you see now when you think about it. Think about his works, his life. Can you see the man that is hard at work, bent over the desk writing a story in a modest home? Can you see where he walks, by the farms full of migrant workers at work like in his stories? After all of this, you can see how he shaped literature; how he, John Steinbeck, wrote about normal social problems in the world- in his world. Just think, if John Steinbeck never wrote these stories- what would the Great Depression look in our eyes? Would we truly know of the social conflicts in those times, that seem so long

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