Written by: Angelia Greiner

• The Early Years

• The Great Depression

• Later Writings

• Steinbeck’s Style

John SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck

Steinbeck Enters His WritingSteinbeck Enters His Writing

"Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book."

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Born in Salinas, California

• Family: working parents and 3 sisters

• Graduated Salinas High School

• Attended Stanford University

• Worked on freelance writing

Early YearsEarly Years

Steinbeck VideoSteinbeck Video

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Steinbeck’s Small WorldSteinbeck’s Small World

• Salinas, California 1900-1925

• Steinbeck set novels in valley

• Mix of cultures from valley influenced writings

• Own experiences growing up there influenced writings

Boyhood HomeBoyhood Home

• Steinbeck started writing career in this home

Salinas Growing UpSalinas Growing Up

• Some of most famous books center on area

• Moved to New York City 1925

• Moved back to California a year later

• Published Cup of Gold in 1929

• Married Carol Henning in 1930

• Great Depression changed Steinbeck’s writing

Steinbeck’s World EnlargesSteinbeck’s World Enlarges

Great Depression Hits!Great Depression Hits!

• Stock market Crash 1929

• Midwest experienced “dustbowl” in 1930s

• Tenant farmers, sharecroppers and small farm owners left penniless

• Displaced desperate families moved west

Dustbowl MidwestDustbowl Midwest

• Banks call in loans from small farmers

• Farmers are told to cut back on production of goods

• Severe drought hits the Midwest

Dust Bowl VideoDust Bowl Video

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• Farm foreclosure sale in Idaho in the 1930s

A Matter of Survival A Matter of Survival

At the Mercy of StrangersAt the Mercy of Strangers

• Families left destroyed land to seek new life in CA

Write about SurvivalWrite about Survival

Young Migrant WorkerYoung Migrant Worker

• Novels set in Salinas Valley

• Characters are common men and women

• Themes: people’s connection to environment

Steinbeck Writes of HomeSteinbeck Writes of Home

Person and Environment Are OnePerson and Environment Are One

“…the trees and the muscled mountains are the world – but not the world apart from man – the world and man – the one inseparable unit man and his environment. Why they should ever have been understood as separate I do not know.”

—John Steinbeck

• The Pastures of Heaven 1932

• The Red Pony 1933

• The Murder wins the O.Henry Prize 1934

• To a God Unknown 1933

• Tortilla Flat 1935

Early CareerEarly Career

• 1936: The Dubious Battle

• 1937: Of Mice and Men

• 1938: The Long Valley

Early CareerEarly Career

The Grapes of WrathThe Grapes of Wrath

• 1939: The Grapes of Wrath

• 1940: The Grapes of Wrath movie released

• 1940: received the Pulitzer Prize for the novel

• Exposed exploitation and suffering of farm workers

• Described resilience of common people

Steinbeck’s Defining MomentSteinbeck’s Defining Moment

The Complications of FameThe Complications of FameSteinbeck wrote:

“The vilification of me out here from the large landowners and bankers is pretty bad. The latest is a rumor started by them that the Okies hate me and have threatened to kill me for lying about them. I'm frightened at the rolling might of this damned thing, It is completely out of hand; I mean a kind of hysteria about the book is growing that is not healthy.”  Single click the speaker icon or

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Same Settings: New PlayersSame Settings: New Players

• 1938: The Chrysanthemums

• 1941: Forgotten Village

• 1942: The Moon is Down

Steinbeck and RickettsSteinbeck and Ricketts

• Steinbeck’s friend was drafted

• Steinbeck unable to enlist as soldier

• Became war correspondent

Hitchcock Inspired SteinbeckHitchcock Inspired Steinbeck

• 1942: Bombs Away

• 1944: Movie “Lifeboat” for Hitchcock

Writing From the RoadWriting From the Road

• Moves to New York

• War correspondent for New York Herald Tribune

• 1945: Cannery Row published

• 1947: The Pearl published

• Moves home to research Salinas Valley

• Divorces second wife and remarries

Back in CaliforniaBack in California

• 1951: The Log from the Sea of Cortez

• 1952: East of Eden published

• 1954: Sweet Thursday The Short Reign of Pippin IV 1957

• 1958: Once There Was a War

• 1961: The Winter of Our Discontent

• 1962: Travels With Charley: In Search of America

• 1966: America and Americans

Later WritingsLater Writings

Travels with CharleyTravels with Charley

• Traveled with his dog

Charley

• Wanted to reconnect with

America and Americans

• Traveled the country

Writing AdviceWriting Advice

‘“Don’t think for a moment that you will ever be forgiven for being what they call ‘different.’ You won’t! I still have not been forgiven. Only when I am delivered in a pine box will I be considered ‘safe.’ After I had written the Grapes of Wrath and it had been to a large extent read and sometimes burned, the librarians at the Salinas Public Library, who had known my folks remarked that is was lucky my parents were dead so that they did not have to suffer this shame.”’ 

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Purpose of LiteraturePurpose of Literature

• Concern for the welfare of common people

• Expose the corrupt actions of others

• Celebrate the resilience of people

Sinclair Lewis

Rugged IndividualismRugged Individualism

Steinbeck once stated:

• “Socialism is just another

form of religion, and thus

delusional.”

• Faith in one’s own power

Steinbeck’s PoliticsSteinbeck’s Politics

• Knew F.D.R. personally

• Wrote speeches for other presidents

• “Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts…perhaps the fear of a loss of power.”

– John Steinbeck

F.D.R.F.D.R.

Nobel Prize for LiteratureNobel Prize for Literature“The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit – for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.”

—John Steinbeck 1962

• Steinbeck considered one of three notable naturalist writers

• All had a background in journalism

• All focused on the power inherent to nature

• Also focused on extremes people go to to survive

• Naturalism contrasted to Realism

NaturalismNaturalism

Jack LondonJack London

Qualities of NaturalismQualities of Naturalism

• Everyone has emotions that lead to unacceptable behavior

• Man struggles to survive in an indifferent environment

• The environment influences one’s development

• Belief in Determinism

Write What You KnowWrite What You Know

• 1962: Steinbeck accepted the Nobel Prize in Stockholm 

• 1967: Traveled to report on Vietnam

• 1968: Died December 20th in New York

Later YearsLater Years

EulogyEulogy

“John Steinbeck's first great book was his last great book. But Good Lord, what a book that was and is: The Grapes of Wrath.”

Poore concluded:“His place in [U.S.] literature is secure. And it lives on in the works of innumerable writers who learned from him how to present the forgotten man unforgettably.”

• 1939 – Of Mice and Men

• 1940 – The Grapes of Wrath

• 1941 – The Forgotten Village

• 1942 – Tortilla Flat

• 1943 – The Moon is Down

• 1944 – Lifeboat

• 1944 – A Medal for Benny

• 1947 – La Perla (The Pearl, Mexico)

• 1949 – The Red Pony

• 1952 – Viva Zapata!

• 1955 – East of Eden

• 1956 – The Wayward Bus

• 1961 – Flight

• 1982 – Cannery Row

• 1992 – Of Mice and Men

Film CreditsFilm Credits

Tortilla FlatTortilla Flat

“It is not good to have so many breakable things around...When they are broken you become sad. It is much better to never have had them.”

Cannery RowCannery Row

“The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”  

(John Steinbeck, Cannery Row) Single click the speaker icon or audio words to hear the clip >>>>

Self-RelianceSelf-Reliance

The Red PonyThe Red Pony “At nine o'clock the wind sprang up and howled around the barn. And in spite of his worry, Jody grew sleepy. He got into his blankets and went to sleep, but the breathy groans of the pony sounded in his dreams. And in his sleep he heard a crashing noise which went on and on until it awakened him. The wind was rushing through the barn. He sprang up and looked down the lane of the stall. The barn door had blown open, and the pony was gone.”

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Of Mice and MenOf Mice and Men

“Free men cannot start a war,” Steinbeck wrote in the book, “but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars.”

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The Grapes of WrathThe Grapes of Wrath

“I know this – a man got to do what he got to do.”

The PearlThe Pearl

“An accident could happen to these oysters, a grain of sand could lie in the folds of muscle and irritate the flesh until in self-protection the flesh coated the foreign body until it fell free in some tidal flurry or until the oyster was destroyed.”

The Pearl as a ParableThe Pearl as a Parable

East of EdenEast of Eden

“It seems to me that if you orI must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world.” (John Steinbeck, East of Eden)

The Winter of Our DiscontentThe Winter of Our Discontent“While I combed my hair, I looked in the mirror. I hadn’t seen my face in some time. It’s quite possible to shave everyday and never really see your face, particularly if you don’t care much for it. Beauty is only skin deep, and also beauty comes from the inside. It better be the second if I was to get anywhere. It isn’t that I have an ugly face. To me, it just isn’t interesting. I made a few expressions in the mirror and gave it up.”

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• Naturalist writer

• Champion of the common man

• Sense of Humor

• Rugged Individualism• “And this I believe: that the free,

exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.” -- John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck The ManJohn Steinbeck The Man

Steinbeck’s PersonalitySteinbeck’s Personality

Writing in Layers of MeaningWriting in Layers of Meaning

• Regionalism

• Colloquialism

• Allusions

John Steinbeck StyleJohn Steinbeck Style

• Read around world

• Pioneer in writing with ecological perspective

• Model for individual freedom of thought

Concluding Thoughts: Steinbeck’s LegacyConcluding Thoughts: Steinbeck’s Legacy