Brief Biography of John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck lead a life filled with words, from his award winning novels to the hundreds letters he wrote to friends during his career. He was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902, and lived there for the first sixteen years of his life until he graduated from Salinas High School in 1918. He took classes at Stanford, but spent more of his college years working to pay tuition than then he spent in the classroom. 1924 brought his first publication, two short stories in the Standford Spectator, but in 1925 he left his schooling and went to New York for a time. By 1926, he was back in California and his first book, Cup of Gold, was published the year the of great stock market crash, but had little success. In 1930, he married Carol Henning, and the two lived in Pacific Grove, CA for the next several years. These years were lean; Steinbeck was having trouble selling his work, even with the help of his literary agents, McIntosh and Otis. Often, selling a short story for 50$ or so was the difference between eating or not.
In 1937, though, Steinbeck got his first taste of real success. Now living in Los Gatos, California, he had four novels and a play published in just three years. He burst onto the literary scene with Of Mice and Men, and published the first three parts of The Red Pony the same year. The play of Of Mice and Men went on stage and won the Drama Critics' Circle Award. The next year, he published The Long Valley and the last part of The Red Pony. His big project for the year, however, was working and researching a great novel, to be published in 1939 under the title The Grapes of Wrath. With this book, Steinbeck insured his future in the literary world. The book was so controversial that Steinbeck had to worry about attempts on his life or reputation; even now, it (along with Of Mice and Men) often are found on lists of commonly banned books. It was so well thought of that it earned him a Pulitzer Prize. It was so influential that President Franklin D. Roosevlet met with Steinbeck personally after a letter to the President from Steinbeck about the German influence in Mexico. Steinbeck had been in Mexico working on a film, and throughout the rest of his life, motion pictures were a second medium for him. The film of Of Mice and Men was released in 1939, and the film of The Grapes of Wrath came out ...
... middle of paper ...
... n7 p4(6).
Kelly, Dusty. "The Kurt Vonnegut Artificial Family Utopia." World Wide Web Page http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/5885/
Mack, Arien ed. Home: A Place in the World. New York: New York University Press, 1993.
Morrow, Jeff. Personal Interview. April 23, 1998.
Noble, Donald R. ed. The Steinbeck Question: New Essays in Criticism. Troy, New York, 1993.
Pipher, Mary. Reviving Ophelia. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.
Reed, Peter J. and Marc Leeds eds. The Vonnegut Chronicles: Interviews and Essays. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Steinbeck, John. A Life in Letters. New York: Penguin Books, 1969.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Books, 1930.
Swerdlow, Amy, et al. Families in Flux. New York: The Feminist Press,1989.
Timmerman, John H. John Steinbeck's Fiction: The Aesthetics of the Road Taken. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slapstick. New York: Dell Publishing, 1976.
Weiten, Wayne. Psychology: Themes and Variations, Third Edition. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1997.
Wyatt, David ed. New Essays on The Grapes of Wrath. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
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.
Analysis of Style of The Grapes Of Wrath John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath is a moving novel, full of richly metaphorical language. His writing style often evokes deep emotions, as it does in the passage reprinted below, by creating a clear picture in your mind of what he’s trying to say. In this selection, he enforces a strong image in the reader’s mind: you cannot escape your past, which will be with you no matter where you go or what you do.&n & nbsp; & nbsp; But you can’t start. Only a baby can start. You and me—why, we’re all that’s been. That anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that’s us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the drought years are us. We can’t start again. The bitterness we sold to the junk man—he got it all right, but we hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day—the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they’ll all walk together and there’ll be a dead terror from it. (ch. 9, p. 11. & nbsp; An important point that Steinbeck tries to deliver is the significance of memory. “The bitterness we sold to the junk man—he got it all right, but we have it still. ” Despite having rid themselves of the physical presence of reminders of past woes, the mental image and pain still remain. Just because there isn’t anything around to provide evidence of something happening doesn’t mean that it will go away. “You and me—why, we’re all that’ and his thoughts, not what he surrounds himself with in the external world. Steinbeck’s word choice has a very significant impact on the effectiveness of his writing. By using words and phrases like “junk man,” “dead terror,” and the repetition of the words “bitterness” and “dead,” he drives his point home in a very matter-of-fact sort of way. He doesn’t beat around the bush or dodge the issue at all, he just spits it out, plain and clear—“.that’s us until we’re dead. ”&n not overcomplicating his writing, the same meaning is conveyed in fewer words, and is therefore more potent. Further adding strength to his narrative is its similarity to the writing structure of the Bible. His sentences are generally short and often start with the word “And,” just as the books of the Bible do. This makes his tone sound very prophetic, powerful, and forceful. He speaks of “armies of bitterness” that will “walk together and there’ll be a dead terror from it”—forecasting terrible events in the future as if he knew they were going to happen.&nbs and the real thing.
John Steinbeck was born in 1902, in California's Salinas Valley, a region that would eventually serve as the setting for Of Mice and Men, as well as many of his other works. He studied literature and writing at Stanford University. He then moved to New York City and worked as a laborer and journalist for five years, until he completed his first novel in 1929, Cup of Gold. With the publication of Tortilla Flat in 1935, Steinbeck achieved fame and became a popular author. He wrote many novels about the California laboring class. Two of his more famous novels included Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck got the title for Of Mice and Men from a line of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry." In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck includes the theme of loyalty and sacrifice between friends. Steinbeck illustrates the loyalty and sacrifice between friends through the friendship of Lennie and George.
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.
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.
John Steinbeck, a loyal and hardworking author, took upon himself the task of writing a novel that would change the lives of many American citizens. Steinbeck’s controversial novel, The Grapes of Wrath, sparked a state of terror that would soon affect his reputational status. Published in 1939, the novel told the story of a young family, the Joads, who took a journey across the country to find decent work in California. Steinbeck, being the author he is, included inter-chapters, which told the stories of many different people during that time. These people, as well as the Joads, struggled horribly. Before the creation of the novel, Steinbeck stated: “I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]. I’ve done my damnedest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags.” (Banned Books Awareness: “The Grapes of Wrath”) Accomplishing his goal, “many Americans were disgusted by how Steinbeck described the poor and accused him of exaggerating the conditions to make a political point.” (Banned Books Awareness: “The Grapes of Wrath”) The government of the United States began to accuse Steinbeck of communism, and attacked his social and political views. Most importantly, the Associated Farmers of California began to label The Grapes of Wrath as “communist propaganda.” (Banned Books Awareness: “The Grapes of Wrath”)
Firstly, the determinist argue that “everything we do is cause by forces over which we have no control (James & Stuart Rachels 110). The free will this theory speaks of is most likely on the biological level, as there are many natural events that occur that people have no control over. For example, the act of cellular reproduction, this
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.
John Steinbeck is considered one of the most influential and respected prewar and postwar authors of all time. His national and international success with novels such as Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath earned him the Nobel Peace prize for literature in 1962 which marked the end of an amazing writer. Steinbeck’s works shared common themes, but a majority of his renowned works were set right in his childhood backyard in the Salinas valley and Monterey bay area. His short story collection The Long Valley is a prime example of his childhood influence in his setting as well as the common themes used throughout his works. John Steinbeck’s success is still apparent today in modern day classrooms around the world, a famous and renowned author many years after his time.
One of the main therapeutic methods for mental health issues is cognitive behavioral therapy. I’m a huge fan of this because behavioral psychology was my major due to how fascinating it is. Cognitive behavioral therapy is basically “a type of psychotherapy in which negative patterns of thought about the self and the world are challenged in order to alter unwanted behavior patterns”
of how John Steinbeck uses extraordinary circumstances to create appeal and realism to the reader.
In conclusion, I believe that is difficult to answer the question on determinism vs. free will. What is freedom? I think that both the ability to freely choice along with free will are present in our lives. External and internal factors are both huge influences on our lives, beyond our control, but because they are beyond our control does not mean that we cannot make changes. Yes, we are all born as a certain nationality, gender, race, country, and exposed to different experiences, yet we still have the ability to grow and change. If one can acknowledge these differences and what we can and cannot control, then we can move on to other forms of change and then truly experience free will.
Timmerman, John H. "The Wine Of God's Wrath: The Grapes Of Wrath." Critical Insights: The
Within and beyond philosophy, lies the tension between the universal concept of free will and determinism. From a general standpoint, individuals are convinced that they rule and govern their own lives. Free will embodies that individuals have the freedom to dictate their own future. It asserts that our minds and essence have the capacity to choose our own actions and direction, whilst also choose alternative paths. Determinism on the other hand, suggests that life is a product of necessity and causation, built upon the foundations of the past and laws of nature. It threatens the thesis of free will by positing that the world and everything in it is knowable through strict cause and effect relationships - eliminating the possibility of freedom