John Steinbeck’s Cup of Gold narrates the life of an youth turned adventurer named Henry Morgan. John Steinbeck’s portrayal of Henry’s dogged quest for wealth and glory depicts the hidden dangers of desire. Steinbeck utilizes several literary techniques to demonstrate the dissatisfaction and corruption that accompanies unchecked desires.
Throughout the novel, Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to demonstrate dissatisfaction of desire without purpose. Henry Morgan’s entire quest for wealth and glory is summarized by Gwenliana, his aged grandmother. She describes how after sacking the cities, and conquering countries, he will “marry a white-souled maiden of mighty rank – a girl of good family, and wealthy” (Steinbeck 27). While her prophecy does summarize Henry’s rise to power, it also foreshadows Henry’s eventual realization that bloody adventure and conduct leaves him simply malcontent. His marrying the white-souled maiden, Elizabeth, marks the end of his pointless desires and makes him realize the folly of ambitions without proper purpose, hence his settling down and abandoning piracy. Furthermore, Steinbeck foreshadows Henry’s subconscious recognition that his simple desires without true contemplation will only lead to unfulfillment. This is shown when Henry receives permission from James Flower to purchase a ship. “He named her Elizabeth and put to sea” (Steinbeck 60). This foreshadows his later unconscious desire for Elizabeth even in the face of La Santa Roja, the most beautiful woman in the world. He expresses how even this majestic ship he purchased and takes pride in had only given him peace from his ambitions for but a few months. After dwelling for some time at the plantation of James Flower, Henry feels “a dull, torturing d...
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...desired it, but as he grew a bit older, he started to feel a void that he mistakenly believed could be filled through achieving more desires and dreams. Instead of happiness and fulfillment, Henry finds corruption and dissatisfaction once he completes his goals. In this way, Steinbeck shows the disillusionment of Henry Morgan and establishes that a desire is not in fact bad, but merely needs purpose. Henry violently gained what he wanted and thought little of the consequences because his dreams were simply material wealth and fame, inevitably corrupting his character. If his dream was well thought out, he would not fall into dissatisfaction due to the methods he would use to gain them and the meaning that would be put into his dream. Thus, Steinbeck uses Henry’s rise and fall to stress that an ambition or desire must have purpose and more meaning that material want.
The almighty American dream, commonly misconceived as the property of those who reap great materialistic wealth, has been analyzed and sought after through generations. However, this dream, “could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country” (Goldberg), and the numerous success stories of impoverished beings proves this. This subjectiveness stems from the great diversity within human nature and the variation of goals and pleasures. The characters in novels such as The Glass Castle, To Kill a Mockingbird and the play, The Crucible, act to portray several attempts towards achieving this dream. Ultimately, the almighty American Dream manifests itself through the novels as the desire to accomplish stability and content within one’s
Henry's first-person narrative is the most important element of these stories. Through it he recounts the events of his life, his experiences with others, his accomplishments and troubles. The great achievement of this narrative voice is how effortlessly it reveals Henry's limited education while simultaneously demonstrating his quick intelligence, all in an entertaining and convincing fashion. Henry introduces himself by introducing his home-town of Perkinsville, New York, whereupon his woeful g...
These two passages “There’s Still Gold in These Hills” and “Letter From a Gold Miner” help the reader understand the history and process of gold mining in the US. Both passages give detailed information, specific instructions, and an interesting background about gold mining. These passages use different strategies to help the reader perceive the history and process. These strategies may include using specific dates of when the gold rush took place, information to help the reader picture the setting of where to find gold, and also teaches the process step by step.
Hayashi, Tetsumaro. A New Study Guide to Steinbeck's Major Works, with Critical Explications. Scarecrow Press, Jan 1, 1993
Through Henry's progression in thoughts, Crane explores this changing view of the hero. As the book opens, "the youth [Henry] had believed that he must be a hero" (Crane 50), as he set out as a newly enlisted man. Awaiting the call of his first battle, Henry reflected that "[s]ometimes he inclined to believing them all heroes" (Crane 75) based simply on their role as soldiers. However, when confronted with the reality of battle, Henry soon noticed that "[t]here was a singular absence of heroic poses" (Crane 86). Trying to cope with his own inadequacy, Henry finds himself always lacking in comparison with those around him. As they marched along he thought that heroes "could find excuses . . . They could retire with perfect self-respect and make excuses to the stars" (Crane 123). Marching among those heroes wounded in battle, "they rendered it almost impossible for him to see himself in a heroic light" (Crane 125). Henry began to despair "that he should ever become a hero" (Crane 126). However, through a new confrontation in battle, Henry found himself funct...
The American Dream started off as propaganda in order to make the American people of the early twentieth century work harder to build a successful economy. The idea of the American Dream is that every American citizen has an equal opportunity of making money along with owning a large house, some land, and having a family with kids. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck illustrates that the American Dream, no matter how simple is impossible to achieve. As everyone has their own interpretation of the American Dream, Steinbeck uses George and Lennie, Crooks, and Curley’s Wife to demonstrate how the American Dream is impossible to achieve and how important the dream was for people so they could carry on with their lives.
... evident today, the vain pursuit of things in order to bring happiness is common. In addition, Fitzgerald shows that even the most basic part of American society, the American dream, has been corrupted. All of these elements blend together to form a corrupt and vile society that is a reflection of today's.
John Steinbeck’s novella, The Pearl, is written as a parable, which allows the reader to interpret its themes in their own way. It can take place in any time period, with any setting, and using any protagonist. The themes Steinbeck used throughout his book are universal and can applied to anyone’s lives. Its contrasting portrayal of good and evil creates a clear understanding of themes such as greed, illusions, and humanity and reason versus animalism and instinct.
The concept of the American dream has been related to everything from religious freedom to a nice home in the suburbs. It has inspired both deep satisfaction and disillusioned fury. The phrase elicits for most Americans a country where good things can happen. However, for many Americans, the dream is simply unattainable. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams,” Dexter Green, a hardworking young man born into the middle class, becomes wrapped up in his pursuit to obtain wealth and status in his life. These thoughts and ideas represent Dexter’s fixation on his “winter dreams,” or, the idea of what the American Dream means to him: gaining enough wealth to eventually move up in social class and become somebody, someday. As Dexter attempts to work himself up the social ladder, he falls in love with Judy Jones, a shallow and selfish, rich woman. But to Dexter, Judy represents the very idea of the American Dream-- obtaining wealth and status. Dexter’s pursuit of Judy and essentially the American Dream becomes an obsession. In the end, Dexter is forced to accept the realization that his “winter dreams” are actually just empty wishes. By characterizing Judy as a superficial, materialistic woman, Fitzgerald criticizes the destructive nature of the American Dream.
Henry becomes bored and unhappy. For time he begins to question his bravery and he
In the end, even after working so hard, none of the characters were able to reach their American Dream. In conclusion, Steinbeck shows American Dream as an unreachable goal because of a character’s standing in the society, their dreams to be unreal and their dependency on other characters.
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902. He grew up on ranches around the Salinas Valley, learning many skills and also witnessing the harsh lives of the ranch workers during the darkest days of the Great Depression. Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919 and attended Stanford University for five years until 1925 when he left without a degree for New York City. He survived off odd jobs and tried to write books, which never were published. He then moved back to California and lived in Tahoe City where he met his first wife Carol Henning. It was here in Lake Tahoe where he finished his first novel Cup of Gold, which followed the infamous privateer Henry Morgan and his adventures in the Caribbean. Stei...
The symbols that encompass the novel underscore the theme that the American Dream, corrupt and unjust, eventually concludes in anguish. Money, greed, and lust overtake everything in their lives to the point of nothing else being of importance. The characters in this novel lost themselves to a fruitless dream that eventually brought and end to the “holocaust” that embodied their lives (162).
Every character in the novel has moments of feeling happy and endures a moment where they believe that they are about to achieve their dreams. Naturally everyone dreams of being a better person, having better things and in 1920’s America, the scheme of get rich quick. However each character had their dreams crushed in the novel mainly because of social and economical situations and their dream of happiness becomes a ‘dead dream’ leading them back to their ‘shallow lives’ or no life at all.
Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald portrays a society full of people who have corrupted the true meaning of the American Dream. Fitzgerald portrays the ultimate failure of the American Dream through individuals who believed that wealth is everything. His novel suggests that wealth and materialistic gain are all that concerns people. Some people are born into wealth and others have to work their way through life to gain it. This novel portraits an entire nation of people who are willing to throw everything away just to attempt to achieve an unattainable dream.