Steinbeck and Contemporary Culture: Capital and Postmodernity
Modernity was an era characterized by an explosion of revolutionary,
productive, creative, critical, and rational human energy. Man was an
end in himself, the remaining absolute in a relativistic universe. The
liberating dialectics of the modern era have come into equilibrium,
however, with the postmodern era in which traditional dichotomies lose
their distinctions and information spreads at exponential rates. The
Grapes of Wrath
Steinbeck foreshadows a contemporary culture defined by dehumanization
in his treatment of capital and the landed class. Steinbeck's most
marked criticism of the psychological and economic consequences of
capitalism is found in the novel's interchapters. In an anonymous and
exemplary exchange between an evicted tenant and a landlord, the
tenant desires to "fight to keep [his] land" and shoot someone, but
the owner maintains that the force responsible for the tenant's
eviction is not human, but "the monster," an impersonal and abstract
entity representing capitalism (45). Steinbeck underscores the
contrast between humanity and the capital interest, as represented by
the monster: "[They] don't breathe air, don't eat side-meat. They
breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don't get it,
they die the way you die without air, without side-meat" (43). The
monster, moreover, "has to have profits all the time….When the monster
stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size" (44). Capital,
Steinbeck comments, must constantly be in flux and reproduction of
itself. The owners who serve capital are all "caught in something
larger than t...
... middle of paper ...
...more real than real" (81) -
that is, the realization of ideal body image, status, and personality
attributes in the advertised image - the actual social sphere loses
its meaning. Mass production, Baudrillard concludes, is no longer for
the masses, but of the masses (68). This psychological reversal of the
production dynamics that characterized modernity subverts
Whereas capital in The Grapes of Wrath dissociates the bourgeoisie
from their physical humanity, Steinbeck's ideal remains intact. In
Simulacra and Simulation, however, Baudrillard carries the causal
chain to man's inessentiality in postmodern culture.
Works Cited
Baudrillard, Jean. Glaser, Sheila Faria, trans. Simulacra and
Simulation. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
John Steinbeck’s novels The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men reveal and confront the struggles of common individuals in their day-to-day lives. The Grapes of Wrath creates a greater verisimilitude than Of Mice and Men as it illustrates the lives of Oklahoma farmers driven west during the Dustbowl of the late 1930’s. Of Mice and Men deals with a more personal account of two poor men and the tragic ending of their relationship. Steinbeck expresses his concern for multiple social issues in both The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Tightly-knit relationships appear prominently in both books and provide the majority of the conflicts that occur. The decency of common people is written about to a great extent in The Grapes of Wrath and is also prevalent through numerous examples in Of Mice and Men. As in all effective writing that bares the soul of the author, each novel reveals Steinbeck’s core beliefs.
John Steinbeck’s use of figurative language and local color in Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday and Of Mice and Men show his growth as a writer and highlight the reoccurring theme of loneliness and ostracism. The time gap in between these books show that Steinbeck grows as he experiences more throughout his life. Steinbeck’s novels are always set in California due to his extensive knowledge of the area since he has lived in the area his entire life. In all of his works the characters use parts of speech and actions that are customary to that area.
I. John Steinbeck used his personal experiences as a laborer to write many of his novels like Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.
In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck explores human relationships through characters who are barely fleshed out beyond the boundary of a stereotype. Many of the minor characters even have names which reflect their status as a symbol of their position rather than thinking, feeling people. Crooks, the African American stable buck, represents the "crooked" thinking of the majority toward other races during the time period while Curley's wife represents only that- the wife of a man. Her character serves to show the place of women in a man's society. Likewise, the two main characters, George and Lennie, each serve as a symbol of psychological and physical traits which complement each other to show how important human relationships are, regardless of the traits a person may possess. All human beings develop relationships with others because those relationships fill particular needs. Those needs may be physical, economic, psychological, or social.
Steinbeck’s idea of the zygote described many of the jobless Americans during the Great Depression. The zygote was the men who had talked with each other and formed as one. In The Grapes of Wrath, the people suffering from the Depression form a zygote that threatens to overthrow the government; to regulate it so that they can have a job that pays them an adequate amount of money. One man can be ignored, but millions cannot be.
Throughout history, human beings have been motivated by self-interest in order to overcome, succeed, and progress. This has happened so much so that some have argued that greed is an intrinsic part of human nature, and therefore establishing a society that goes against greed is utopian. Yet, rejecting human nature altogether is not a viable answer. Others contend that altruism and greed are equal and dual powers. In fact, history has shown that during the Great Depression it is the perpetuation of avarice that drives individuals to create a system that sinks thousands into poverty. In contrast, it is also the idea and action taken by individuals that prove the role of humans to help each other as a necessity. In The Grapes of Wrath, author John Steinbeck indirectly implies that both greed and generosity are self-perpetuating by advocating families to work as a cohesive unit, forcing structural changes in autonomous communities in order to sustain and survive the Depression. Out of the Dust, a short story by Karen Hesse, and “Do Re Mi,” a song by Woody Guthrie, echo the primary message in The Grapes of Wrath, supporting the crushing vision of the Dust Bowl migration as a direct resultant of greed.
John Steinbeck's novels expressed an ecological world view that has only recently begun to accumulate proponents. This holistic view grew during an era when such thinking was unpopular, and one must wonder how this growth could have occurred in a climate which was hostile for it. Some investigation shows that the seeds for this view already existed in his childhood and were nurtured through his exposure to ideas in marine biology.
The journey of John Steinbeck's life is summarized in a line: "A life close to the character of an ideal American, the kind the constitution does its best to reflect and which does more good for his country than all its propaganda at a time of trial" (Benson 2003: xxvi).
The theme of power in prevalent in John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice And Men’ and is presented and developed in many different ways. Power is first established in the title, which introduces the recurring wrath of fate implying that men, like beast, are helplessly fated to live a disempowered and isolated life. Some however seek comfort in their powerful dreams, and companionship in their romanticised fraternal bonds, most notably that of Lennie and George, whose unconditional love for another leaves the reader with questions regarding their own morality. Steinbeck’s powerful prose, a strong single plot line over a short time span drives the tragic events forward, and his depiction of the foreshadowing natural world gives the novella a certain aspect of duality.
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])
Coming from an “unconventional” background, George Saunders is readily able to relate to the circumstances the everyday working laborer goes through (Wylie). However, Saunders has an advantage to spread out his ideas and concerns about life in the U.S. via his short stories and novellas. Because of neoliberalism and capitalism and its correlation to the huge wealth gap in the U.S. Saunders focuses his protagonists’ view from a proletariat standpoint, allowing the reader to see the life of consumerism has impacted our society. Saunders does not use conventional methods to portray this reality. Instead, Saunders emphasizes on the “absence” of certain moral human characteristics in order to take the reader away from viewing into a hero’s looking glass— to set a foundation of a world where our morals become lost to our materialistic and inherent need of money (Wylie).
refusal to play a literary role. He made him self as unpopular writer so he
The Power of The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck has become one of my favorite writers -- for the love he has for his characters, the loveliness of his language, and the clear-eyed conviction with which he writes. Originally, I failed to see the beauty in Steinbeck's people, though it is plainly there. Perhaps I hadn't seen enough of the world myself, yet. There was a lot I didn't understand about people. What Steinbeck does so well is to show people's struggle for simple human decency in the face of meanness and ignorance.
John Steinbeck was perhaps the best author of all time. He was the winner of a Nobel Prize, and among other accomplishments, Steinbeck published nineteen novels and made many movies during his lifetime. All of his experience and knowledge are shown through his novels. A reader can tell, just in reading a novel by Steinbeck, that he had been through a lot throughout his life. Also, Steinbeck worked very hard to accomplish everything that he did during his lifetime. Nothing came very easily to him, and he had to earn everything he owned. This helped him in his writing, because he was able to write about real people and real experiences. John Steinbeck got his inspiration from life experiences, people he knew, and places he had gone.
In 2008, Rudra Sabaratnam, the CEO of the City of Angels Medical Center, committed health care fraud when he attempted to extort money from Medicare and Medi-Cal. He was wealthy, yet, his greed for more money led him to cheat the taxpayer-funded healthcare programs of millions of dollars, depriving the people who actually need the help and money. The greed that Sabaratnam had was partly caused by the profit seeking capitalist system. The desire for wealth in capitalist society leads to corruption and causes a divide between the rich and the poor, so perhaps a system that supports equality and fairness is a better choice. The Eastern-European expression,“Capitalism is man exploiting man; communism is just the opposite,” summarizes one of the main ideas in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck’s aversion to a capitalist society is a motif that appears in several of his literary works, but in The Grapes of Wrath he attacks capitalism constantly and he exposes the poverty, cruelty, and greed found in our capitalist system. By emphasizing the wealthy’s insatiable appetite for profit, which forces the migrants to face hardships, Steinbeck accentuates the inequitable aspects of capitalism, and promotes communism as an alternative.