John Steinbeck's Journey To America

Family is Family John Steinbeck states, “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen” (Steinbeck). This statement works because it is showing his determination and that he can do small things and make them great. Steinbeck’s writings are often depressing and may not come with a good outcome. The Depression era of literature was often blunt and direct in its social criticism, this lasted roughly between 1929 to 1939.

Since 1931 when James Truslow Adams first created the phrase “the American Dream”, people believed that America continuously offered everyone an equal opportunity to be successful. John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, was set during the Great Depression. Farms were struck hard during the Depression, and the two main characters George and Lennie were farm hands during this time. They had experienced the misunderstandings of other farm hands in terms of Lennie’s mental disability, but they were trying to earn enough money to buy their own farm. The idea of this farm drove Lennie and George to keep working, and like many others during this time they hoped to achieve this dream.

In this passage, Steinbeck, the author of Mice and Men, illustrates the conflict that life for a migrant worker is arduous. Migrant working has people surviving paycheck by paycheck in places that may not be hospitable or  comfortable. After being fired from their jobs in Weed, George and Lennie have reached their newest “home” where Lennie doesn 't get a good first impression. Lennie states “This ain 't no good place. I wanna get outa here” (Steinbeck 33).

Steinbeck 's second major legacy was the method of research that he developed in order to create his novels. Steinbeck was the first author of the twentieth century to focus on “the complexity of all life”, rather than the actions of a small group (Shillinglaw). Steinbeck 's “strong biological base for all his metaphysical conclusions” introduced the idea of scientific reasoning as a basis for philosophies, rather than the purely qualitative observations most writers of his time used (Ariki et al. 175). By doing so, Steinbeck set a precedent for humanities research that many writers of the post-World War era would follow. After Steinbeck, writers who used their work to propose various ideas concerning society, culture and life in general

John Steinbeck As an author, John Steinbeck worked hard to accomplish his passion for composing pieces of literature. With his struggle to solidify his reputation as a serious writer, the end result was very rewarding. Several of his literary works became well-known and influential within American history, even earning him a Pulitzer Prize for his phenomenal work. Therefore, Steinbeck remains an important figure within the subject of literature due to his focus on economic hardships throughout specific moments in American history and his niche for relating to the common man.

In the story Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, the author describes a place in Monterey called Cannery Row. Cannery Row is seen to Steinbeck as a ‘perfect society’, a utopia if you will. He looks upon the citizens of Cannery Row differently than the average person, yet also all the while the exact same way. In fact, Steinbeck's view on the rather “undesirable” citizens of Cannery Row highly differs from that of society; even going as far as to label them as an essential to the populace. These lesser-people would be better known as Mack and the boys, whom are based off of some of society’s stereotypical groups.

Author’s have complete creative control over the words that they write. Although, some of the most controversial books are often banned from the open minds of young readers. One of the most controversial endings to have ever been written in American literature is the ending to Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Grapes of Wrath is a story of a family that has to abandon their life as they know it, and move west. The Grapes of Wrath chronicles the struggles of the Joad family as they leave their home in Sallisaw, Oklahoma to find work in California (WIlliams).

“I” to “We”. Let’s Start a Revolution We live in a world full of chaos and the only way to survive is with a family, but what exactly is considered family? The people an individual shares the same blood with? or the people that share the same situation? In the book “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck develops a theme throughout the first fifteen chapters of the book.

Extreme circumstances whether positive or negative customarily expose our true colors. We as human beings are constantly growing and maturing as we go through different stages in our lives. However we can see large-scale paradigmatic shifts in one 's philosophy and nature under immense stress. Steinbeck puts the characters’ mettle to the test in his novel The Grapes of Wrath by placing them in the middle of an apocalyptic depression-era. John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, CA.

John Steinbeck grew up in a booming farming community in Salinas, California; Steinbeck’s father was a manager of a flour mill, and his mother was a former school teacher. He had a comfortable childhood until his teenage years when his father lost his job at the flour mill and opened a feed and grain store that would fail. The Steinbeck family’s finances did not begin to stabilize until John Steinbeck was in college at Stanford University when Steinbeck’s father became the county’s treasurer. John Steinbeck’s own family dynamics have had an impact on the role of family that he establishes for the protagonist in his novel The Winter of Our Discontent.