Ryan+Enearl

John Stienbeck

Thesis: John Steinbeck was aurguably the most importatnt and well known authors of the 20th centurybecause of the way he captured the native speech within his writings, expressed the sorrows of the region during his time, and orginized the way future novelists express their ideas within their stories.

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 7: John Steinbeck." //PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide//. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/steinbeck.html 4/29/10

[] [] > > "Steinbeck, John." //Great Depression and the New Deal Reference Library//. Ed. Allison McNeill, Richard C. Hanes, and Sharon M. Hanes. Vol. 3: Primary Sources. Detroit: UXL, 2003. 229-238. //Gale Virtual Reference Library//. Web. 29 Apr. 2010.
 * Tortilla Flat is about the paisanos and the Emdash; both of mexican, indean, and caucasian backround; who lived in Montery
 * This story gives the reader backround of many cultures of the region
 * John steinbeck writes about how these groups travel around the united states which gives readers a good background about the way people talk and act in various parts of the region
 * John steinbeck took many of his experiences from when he was a child working in a sugar factory and put them in his writings
 * His intrest in writing developed at a young age
 * "you know, I write the purest English of everyone in the world"-John steinbeck
 * John Steinbeck traveled the world because of his need to learn about different cultures
 * He used many of the experiences from his travels in his writing
 * Some examples of these works are: Sea of Cortez, Travels with Charley in Search of America, and A Russian Journal
 * Steinbeck worked with deppression migrants which inspired some of his work like "The Grapes of Wrath"
 * He wrote several articles and 2 novels dealing with WWII and expressed how deppressing the times were
 * In the 1950's and 1960's he wrote speeches for presidents like LBJ which influenced speeches by modern day presidents
 * He's had many strong themes throughout his writings like: strengths of a family, and effects of the environment on a man
 * He has used many different writing styles which have been imitated by modern day writers
 * Steinbeck has also used many different poins of veiws throughout his books; most used by modern novelists
 * today he is stilla powerful and popular author as well as a worldwide literary figure
 * He was the 3rd of 4 children and the only boy
 * His parents beleived in exposing him to differnt cultures so they often attended the theater
 * He was married 3 times
 * his intrest in writing and reading liturature developed at a young age
 * He was the associate editor of his high school's newspaper
 * The short stories that he wrote in the news paper influenced his ability and content tto write as he grew older
 * "Of Mice and Men" proved to be a successful play which ran in the New York theater Music Box for 207 performances
 * Steinbeck has been described as a social-protest writer, a realist, a naturalist, a journalist, and a playwright
 * John Steinbeck was a versatile writer
 * Because of Steinbeck's strong themes and different points of veiw, he seems to be an ongoing literary force today
 * His presence on the World Wide Web is great and he is the subject of many high school and college courses
 * //John Steinbeck//. books and writers, 2008. 1. Print ||
 * Steinbeck's book "The Grapes of Wrath" was compared to "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
 * debates sprang up about this connection and Steinbeck helped to put an agricultural reform into effect
 * in the book "To a God Unknown", Steinbeck popularized the themes and concepts of mythologist Joseph Cambell
 * during WWII Steinbeck worked for //New York Hareld Tribune// in Great Britten
 * While he was there he twisted propaganda into his books EX:"The Moon is Down"
 * Much of his euopean travels influenced his writings
 * John steinbecks book "The Pearl" is a symbol of the mexican culture at its greatest and its worst
 * a character named Kino and his family suffer many disasters which may have been a reflection of events during WWII
 * The book "A Russian Jurnol" depicts facts about Russian culture; agian exessing the native language
 * In Steinbeck's biography "A Life" He brings Western language and Culture to the table
 * Steinbeck's book "East of Eden" he describes the fallen world or how the people of earth are falling apart in their thinking and their acts
 * This book also describes the consiquences of sins (sorrow)
 * Steinbeck liked to write about good and evil/love and hate
 * After reporting about the war in Vietnam for LBJ, the New York Post attacked him for his non-liberal acts
 * 1902-1968
 * "Grapes of Wrath" is considerd a 20th century classic
 * His family was poor but they owned a lot of land
 * Steinbeck didn't bother to get a degree because he knew he was going to be an author
 * The first book he ever wrote was "Cup of Gold" in 1929 but he failed to make good money off it
 * Edward Ricketts was a marine biologist; his veiws on iterdependence of all life deeply influenced steinbecks thinking
 * Because of this inspiration he went to the gulf of Califonira and wrote "The Sea of Cortez"
 * time, . "John Steinbeck." //Time// 12/27/1968: 1-3. Print. ||
 * TIME sugests that steinbeck had a distinctively harmonious and pacific view of life
 * Steinbeck had picked up a refreshing belief in human fellowship and courage
 * simplification was the source of his inspiration
 * Steinbeck was an emotional, sentimental, yet extraordinarily powerful writer who frequently mined his personal experiences for the material of his fiction
 * For a while stienbeck felt that he had lost touch with the nation so he went with his dog charley and went around the world and eventualy found inspiration to write his book "Travels with Charley"
 * I think that this tells us that inspiration can be from anything
 * "Travels with Charley "also reflected Steinbeck's traditional love of the land and anger at the society
 * He had a talent for making things more emphisized
 * he died of heart desease at age 66
 * He tried to make his books vivid so that they drew their readers in
 * After the depression, steinbeck learned to exept the rythm of life
 * Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962
 * "The Winter of Our Discontent" was published in 1961
 * This novel written to portray the contamination of the nation's moral standards and beliefs
 * Of Steinbeck's 16 novels, The Grapes of Wrath was the strongest and most popular
 * Steinbeck rebelled against injustices because men thought they were perfect
 * Steinbeck's dogma was strangly wholesome for the depressing 30's
 * He as a great story teller
 * He was born in Salinas, Calif
 * Some of the inspiration for his novels were from his favorite author Malory's Morte d'Arthur
 * He went to Stanford University in the 1920 but left 5 years later because he went to every class, did the work but still had no degree
 * Steinbeck tended to diminish humans to the condition of animals, to reduce his characters to their simple biological needs and desires
 * Steinbeck has translated his books into 33 different languages
 * Great aat expressing his opinions throughout his stories without coming out and saying them direcly
 * In the book "The Grapes of Wrath" steinbeck focuses on the struggles one particular family went through
 * Ultimately, the story is about the courage and passion of men and women who are able to overcome hardships and endure
 * During the 1930s he produced a number of remarkable novels that portray the conditions that agricultural workers labored under in the Salinas valley
 * //The Grapes of Wrath// won a 1940 Pulitzer Prize for literature
 * Pulitzer Prizes are given each year for outstanding works in literature, journalism, drama, and music
 * Before writing a novel, he would spend time observing firsthand the living and working conditions of the people he wanted to write about
 * Gov. agents and sociologists approved that the scenes that Steinbeck had portrayed were true
 * John Steinbeck's work sheds greater light on the Great Depression in the Grapes of Wrath and helps us see it more clearly