John Steinbeck, the author of many books including The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, writes the book The Pastures of Heaven. This book describes the lives of multiple families and life in a town called the Pastures of Heaven. One family in particular, the Munroe’s, seems to be involved in all families living on the Pastures of Heaven. The Munroe family serves as a dramatic foil character to the rest of the families since, wherever they are, the lovely Pastures of Heaven turn into chaos. In chapter three, Edward “Shark” Wicks is the father of the most beautiful girl in town; he is extremely protective over his daughter, so much so that she cannot even speak to Jimmie Munroe. Jimmie happens to kiss Sharks daughter, Alice, despite her father’s warnings, which in turn results in the family’s downfall. The Munroe family, Jimmie in specific, unknowingly ruined Sharks reputation as the richest man in town. Jimmie Munroe was the dramatic foil character which resulted in Shark’s reputation being ruined. Had Jimmie Munroe not been around Shark would have never went on a rampage against Jimmie and in turn would not have had to expose his fraud. He could continue living his life as a lie and continue deceiving people into believing he was rich. Tularecito was an abnormal child found by Pancho in the brush of the Pastures of Heaven. After being told a story about gnomes Tularecito injures Bert Munroe and is sent to an insane Asylum. Tularecito happened to be digging holes in Bert Munroe’s house, in order to find the gnomes. Bert Munroe was a dramatic foil character by covering the holes that Tularecito dug, eventually leading to Tularecito being sent to a mental institute. Had Bert Munroe not interfered with Tularecito’s digging, the... ... middle of paper ... ...eight Miss Morgan has a wonderful settlement in the Pastures, when the Munroes take her back to her childhood, she is taken back to the reality of her life. Raymond Banks in chapter nine was living a false reality where watching executions was fine, but the Munroes brought the reality back to Banks. Chapter ten was an exception because Pat Humbert lived in the reality of his childhood, yet the Munroes took him out of that reality and into fantasy. Eventually however Humbert returns to his reality at the end of the chapter. The Whitesides live in a fantasy where generations upon generations could live in one house; however the Munroes, by burning the house, took them back to reality. If the Munroes weren’t around all the families would live a fantasy in the Pastures, hence it was not such a bad thing that the Munroes were around bringing the families back to reality.
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.
Storming Heaven is Denise Giardina’s second and award winning novel, published in 1987. The historical novel is a fiction-based recount of the bitter labor conflict that took place in southern West Virginia during the early 1920s, otherwise known as the West Virginia Coal Wars. The author tells the story of the real conflict faced by miners through the eyes of four main characters, each from different walks of life, with their own different point of view. The story told about the real life hardship faced by coal miners and the ensuing conflict is a subject narrowly covered by The American Journey. Although the story that is told through the main characters is fictionalized, it provides a historically accurate portrayal of the events that unfolded during the early 1920s. The book does a great job of covering not only how the coal miners cohesively withstood the hardship placed before them by the invasive coal companies, but also the tactics used by the coal companies to ensure their business interests took precedence over more humane living and working conditions.
The play “Our Town” is a 1938 three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder that is set in a small town called Grover’s Corners. It tells the story of a couple citizens in their everyday lives in the early nineteenth century. Grover’s Corners is a small town, no famous people really come out of it, and everybody knows everybody for the most part. These families that live in Grover’s Corners do not leave the town for the entire book, the people are even buried there. This is the exact opposite of what happens in the novel “The Grapes of Wrath”. The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck that sets the stage of one “Tom Joads” and also the life of a farmer in the Midwest during the Great Depression. Unlike the people in Grover’s Corners, these people leave their hometown not because they want to, but because they have to. The people of Grover’s Corners are ignorant about the gift of life while the people in “The Grapes of Wrath” suffer through a catastrophe that makes them realize how important life really is.
The Grapes of Wrath displays one of America’s greatest stumbles during the establishment of our country. The story follows a family hit with the struggles of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Drought, economic hardship, agricultural changes, and bank foreclosures rip the Joads from the quaint town of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, forcing them to take the dreadful journey across the country. Nevertheless, the Joads drag their feet along the trodden path, dragged on by an unassured perseverance. The Joads were driven by a burning fire of desperation, grounded by the hope promised by orange handbills laden with the deceitful lies of the rapacious. For the hopeless seek hope, an elusive destiny sated by lying promises. Steinbeck’s unique style of writing inculcates an abortive hope in the minds of the readers, instilling a lust for the untouched and unloved land which in turn reveals the impossibility of the “American Dream”; through complex symbols and innovative themes, Steinbeck also educates the ignorant, blinded by the vague history books that blot out the full intensity of the calamities and suffering endured by hopeful Okies on their treacherous journey into the unknown.
Levant, Howard. "The Fully Matured Art: The Grapes of Wrath." John Steinbeck, Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 35-62.
The story is set in the early 20th century, immediately following the Depression and World War II. The characters live in Monterey, California amid the jumble of the sardine fisheries, the "Palace Flophouses", Lee Chong's grocery, Dora's whorehouse, and Doc's Biological Lab. Throughout the book, Steinbeck has the uncanny ability to combine his characters' everyday problems with the twist of a utopian style of living. The end result is a novel with a strange mixture of fantasy and reality, which insists that good fellowship and warm-heartedness are all that are needed to create a paradise anywhere on earth, even in the run-down Cannery Row.
In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck brings to the reader a variety of diverse and greatly significant characters. However, the majority of each characters' individuality happens to lie within what they symbolize in the microcosm of the Joad family and their acquaintances, which itself stands for the entire migrant population of the Great Depression era. One such character is that of Jim Casey, a former preacher and long-time friend of the Joads. In this story, Casey represents a latter-day Christ figure who longs to bring religious stability to the burgeon of migrant families facing West.
The Grapes of Wrath is a classic piece of American literature that provides an in depth analysis of the great dust bowl. The author, John Steinbeck, illustrated the everyday life of a migrant farmer from the perspective of the Joad family. By describing many important motifs, Steinbeck illustrates the many social and economic transformations that America experienced in the 1930’s. These themes include race, religion, gender, and class. The changes that occurred during this time period forever changed the American way of life.
Hearle, Kevin. "John Steinbeck." Twentieth-Century American Western Writers: Second Series. Ed. Richard H. Cracroft. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 212. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Los Angeles Public Library. 4-19-2014
"If an author does not have at least one great popular success, he or she may well be ignored by the media, but if he or she is constantly popular, then the critics become suspicious of the writer's serious intentions" (Benson Introduction). What do critics from the literary world have to say about Steinbeck's writings? Critics have much to say, both positive and negative. What link exists between Steinbeck and his writings? Perhaps the most noteworthy biographical link between Steinbeck and his writings is that he was born and came to maturity in the Salinas Valley. In this area of California, bounded on the north and south by the Pajaro and Jolon valleys on the west and east by the Pacific Ocean and the Gabilan Mountains, Steinbeck found the materials for his fiction (Tedlock 3). John Steinbeck's agricultural upbringing in the California area vibrantly shines through in the settings and story lines of the majority of his works.
In addition to East of Eden, Steinbeck produced many other novels and several volumes of short fiction in his early career. Most of Steinbeck’s novels and stories are set in the Salinas Valley in California where he spent most of his life. Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, Grapes of Wrath which makes him best known. According to John Timmerman, ”Grapes of Wrath studies the problems migrant workers encountered while traveling from Oklahoma to California.” (1) Steinbeck wrote eighteen books through his life span. Some of his novels included Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, Tortilla Flat, The Moon is Down, The Red Pony, and many others. Of Mice and Men gained Steinbeck national recognition. Saint Katy the Virgin, Nothing So Monstrous, The Long Valley, How Edith McGillcuddy, and The Crapshooter are Steinbeck’s volumes of short stories.
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.
That is not to say that nothing happens in Munro’s short-stories. Instead, multiple scenes take place in “Royal Beatings.” The narrator, Rose, tells us of her life as a child growing up in Hanratty, Ontario; of her stepmother, Flo’s, stories and work in the store the family owned, of her father’s habit of isolating himself in his furniture shed, of being beaten and then indulged. However, the plot is secondary to the story. The scenes created by Munro are not based in action, but emotion and character revelation.
Steinbeck, John. Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. 1969. New York: Penguin,
Deck, Alice A. "Beloved: Overview." Reference Guide to American Literature. Ed. Jim Kamp. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 May 2014