John Steinbeck: Honoring Man's Will to Survive

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John Steinbeck was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Having witnessed many major events in the prime time of his life and incorporating them into his novels, his work became famous essentially for its social consciousness. John Steinbeck’s reputation depends predominantly on the simplistic, proletarian themed novels which he wrote during the American Depression. (add grapes of wrath to thesis??)

John Ernst Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902. He grew up in a fertile and agricultural valley about 25 miles away from the Pacific Coast, and both the valley and the coast served as a primary setting for some of his best novels. During his high school and college years, he worked on various ranches and as a farm laborer to support himself. He attended Stanford University, where he only took the courses of his interest and left without a degree. He traveled a lot in his life, especially across the states, and this is shown in the meticulous description of western land in the beginning of almost all his novels. (notable)

The Grapes of Wrath (1939) was one of the most influential novels written in the 20th century. The protagonist, Tom Joad, returns to his home in Oklahoma after being incarcerated, only to find out that his family and neighbors left their farms. His old neighbor, Muley, tells him that everyone has traveled to California in search of work and a better life. Tom and his friend, Jim Casy, reunite with the rest of the Joad family, who were on their way to the Promised Land of California, only to realize that there were thousands of migrants ready to compete for the few hundred jobs available. On the way there, they encounter many people who were starving to death, look...

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...concern and earned his reputation as one of the finest authors in America. By incorporating historical, biographical, and working class perspectives, Steinbeck created a novel which opened the eyes of the readers, as well as offer an honor to man’s will to survive.

Works Cited

"John Steinbeck Biography - Life, Family, Children, Story, School, Mother, Son, Book, Information, Born, House." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. .

"The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck - Introduction." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec Project Editor. Vol. 135. Gale Cengage, 2003. eNotes.com. 2006. 25 Apr, 2011 grapes-wrath-john-steinbeck> Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 1992. Print.

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