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Analysis of John Steinbeck
Steinbeck's essay breakfast
Analysis of John Steinbeck
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Steinbeck’s experience and feelings in "Breakfast" by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck’s stories depict his commiseration and compassion for the down-trodden class. He, in his stories, has summed up the bitterness of the Great Depression decade and aroused widespread sympathy for the plight of migratory farm workers. His style is natural and lucid.
The story “Breakfast” by John Steinbeck is a description of a warm experience he had had. He reminisced about it each time with extra gratification. He kept on refreshing the “sunken memory” with greater details which presented him with queer blitheness.
The author while traveling through the country side early in the morning chanced to meet a family who had fixed their tent down in a valley. He saw a young woman with a baby in her arm, cooking at a cracked, rusty and old iron stove. The writer observed the lady’s movements with great vigilance. He was inspired by the way she was doing her work and at the same time handling the child with absolute ease. The orange fire peeking out of the cracked stove made reflections on the tent which were quite appealing for the author. The author moved towards the stove to warm himself.
In the meanwhile, two persons; an old and a young who were more or less alike, came out of the tent. They exchanged salutations with the author. The young woman kept on doing her job. She was frying bacon and baking bread. The two men inhaled deeply the delicious odour and invited the author for the breakfast. They did not ask the writer his name nor about his whereabouts. The young man asked the author if he was picking cotton. The author told him that he was not on job. The bloke told the author with satisfaction that he had been working for twelve days and the young woman added cheerfully that they had got new robes. They thanked to God for providing them with the opportunity to earn a living.
They savoured the taste of the nicely concocted breakfast. The old man chewed the food with relish and said, “God Almighty, it’s good,” and he filled his mouth again. The young man was quite blissful as they had been eating good food for twelve days. The men’s contentment on the food, that though not surfeit and lavish, deeply impressed the writer.
The young man told the author that if he wanted a job they could arrange one for him.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath, The Moon is Down, Cannery Row, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men. New York: Heinemann/Octopus, 1979. pp.475 - 896.
The meal, and more specifically the concept of the family meal, has traditional connotations of comfort and togetherness. As shown in three of Faulkner’s short stories in “The Country”, disruptions in the life of the family are often reinforced in the plot of the story by disruptions in the meal.
John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.
John Steinbeck explores human experience in the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ in friendship, loneliness and marginalisation. He does this through the characters as explained thought the paragraphs below.
John Steinbeck is a brilliant storyteller capable of crafting such vibrant and captivating literary works that one can effortlessly exit their own life and enter another. John Steinbeck has a passion for divulging the flaws of human nature and he is not afraid to write about the raw and tragic misfortune that plagued the lives of people like the Okies in the Grapes of Wrath and residents of Cannery Row. He was also a brilliant commentator who contributed brilliant opinions on the political and social systems in our world. In heart wrenching words he tells us the story of peoples lives, which were full of love, corruption, faith and growth. However in the novels of Cannery Row and The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck specifically attempts to convey the thematic elements of socialism, survival and the role of women to blatantly present the lifestyle of down trodden migrant workers and the diverse ecosystem of prostitutes, marine biologists, store owners and drunks in a way that is unapologetic and mentally stimulating.
Steinbeck uses these symbols and themes to create a masterpiece depicting a struggle of a family in the beginning of the Great Depression. Using Biblical allusions as one of his literary devices, John Steinbeck tells the story of a migrant worker family, the Joads.
Hayashi, Tetsumaro. A New Study Guide to Steinbeck's Major Works, with Critical Explications. Scarecrow Press, Jan 1, 1993
Levant, Howard. "The Fully Matured Art: The Grapes of Wrath." John Steinbeck, Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 35-62.
Gray, James. John Steinbeck American Writers: A collection of Literary biographies. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1961. 49-72. 4-11-2014
John Steinbeck was a major literary figure in the 20th century and continues to be widely read in the twenty-first century. Steinbeck was born on February 27,1902 (About John Steinbeck) in the Salinas Valley of California. (Laskov) "His father, John Steinbeck, Sr. was the County Treasurer and his mother, Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, was a former school teacher. As a youth, he worked as a ranch hand and fruit picker. (John Steinbeck [2])". "He attended the local high school and studied marine biology at Stanford University between 1920 and 1926, but did not take a degree" (John Steinbeck [1]). Steinbeck's fascination with science and biology is evident in most of his works such as in this quote from the Grapes of Wrath: "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." (Steinbeck 165) As Steinbeck began his writing career, he took many other jobs to support himself. For a short time, he worked at the American in New York City, and then returned to California where he worked various jobs such as a painter and fruit-picker before taking a job as a caretaker for a Lake Tahoe Estate. (John Steinbeck [1]) His job as a caretaker allowed him time to write and by the time he left the job in 1930 he had already published his first book, Cup of Gold (1929) and married his first wife Carol Henning (John Steinbeck [2]). After his marriage he moved to Pacific Grove, California where, in the early 1930s, Steinbeck met Edward Ricketts, a marine biologist, whose views on the interdependence of all life deeply influenced Steinbeck's novel To a God Unknown (1933). (John Steinbeck [2])
...elist John Steinbeck Has Sometimes Been Criticised as a Sentimentalist. Duncan Reith Uncovers the Bleak Political Pessimism Behind His Novel of Ranch Life During the Great Depression, Of Mice and Men." The English Review Nov. 2004: 6+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 11 Jan. 2012.
Novels that exhibit what the life is like for the people at ranch can help readers reflect on how they might react in comparable situation. George and Lennie who struggle to transcend the plight of inerrant farmworkers are followed by the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck. Readers are positioned to respond to themes through Steinbeck’s use of conventions that are dispirit. Themes such as Freedom and confinement, loneliness, and racism are pivotal in the novel and draw out a range of responses from the readers.
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. He had a pretty average childhood with a supportive family and a decent education. While growing up his mother, Olive Hamilton, was a major factor in his education, since she was a schoolteacher and made it her duty to educate him. His mother most likely was the reason he developed a love of reading and literature and ended up going to Stanford. In his child there were only two major events that affected his writing. These were when he worked on a ranch with migrant workers, and when his father’s business failed and the family was temporarily thrust into poverty. These two events most likely sparked his interest in the poor lives of the migrant workers. His experiences on the ranch taught him about the harsh and impoverished lives of the migrant workers and his experience of being in poverty enabled him to understand what life is like when one is poor, as the migrant workers were. This understanding inspired some of his most famous writings such as: Of Mice and Men, In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath. These experiences also allowed him to add a sense of realism to the stories. After graduating from his public high school in 1919 Steinbeck went to Stanford. He went there for 5 years before dropping out without a degree and moving to New York. The following years were highly tumultuous for Steinbeck and he held many odd jobs while trying to get his writing published. In 1935 he finally got his first big break when his critically acclaimed novel, Tortilla Flats, was published. After this he became quite successful and well known although the skill in his writing seems to fall after WWII. After researching his life I decided to focus on using his most famous n...
Ernest Hemingway discusses the theme of hunger throughout A moveable feast by exploring and describing the different types of hunger that he felt. He aims to explore this theme in the passage where he strolls with Hadley, and they stop to eat at the restaurant Michaud’s. Through repetition and use of unconventional detail and word choice, Hemingway shows that he has more than one type of hunger, and needs to differentiate between them. Hemingway strives to tell that hunger is a feeling that is deep within someone, that changes depending on the situation and varies in intensity and meaning.
The novel focuses on the negative aspects of capitalism and sheds a positive light on communism. Steinbeck proves that there are many problems in capitalism with the way the migrants suffered during the era of the Great Depression. The economic slump, which many people assume affected the urban populations, was even harsher on the migrants. Steinbeck, throughout his novel, reveals the plight of the migrant workers during the Depression and how capitalism has crushed them. He reaches out to his readers and plants the idea that the glorified capitalism in America is not what it seems, and that any path, even communism, is preferable.