Imagine... your town is suddenly stricken with poverty. Your family business goes under because the economy of your local community can no longer support it. Herds of your closest friends continually move out of the town you grew up in due to a severe shortage of work. The basic necessities of life are so scarce that everyone around you reverts to their animalistic urges to survive. Those who you have came to trust, betray you and your family for selfish reasons. This chaos was typical every day life during the youth of one of America's greatest writers, John Steinbeck. The environment that engulfed John Stein beck's early life shaped his literary style to focus on the economic hardships of rural labor and man's every day struggles with natural urges.
             John Steinbeck was born to middle-lower class family in the farming community of Salinas, California. John's father, who was a businessman and politician, experienced great difficulty maintaining a successful business in their small town. John watched his father fail at many endeavors including managing a flour plant and opening a feed and grain store as well as the political corruption his father faced as County Treasurer (Shillinglaw). No matter how much financial adversity John's family faced, his father always kept a sunny disposition and took the family on frequent trips across California. These small towns and cities John and his family would visit, later served to be the local of his future novels such as: East of Eden and The Red Pony(Fontenrose, 2). John even used his home town of Salinas to serve as the setting for the short story, The Chrysanthemums(Charters 705). Here John was able to see the effects of the early twentieth-century economy on the every day farmers in his home state.
             John was always very enthusiastic about school, and enjoyed all subjects as well as many extra circular activities such as football. as a child, he wa...