The Danger in Self-Sacrifice
In his second novel, To a God Unknown, John Steinbeck explores his protagonist's relationship with and worship of the land. While the use of the land as a character in itself is nothing unusual in Steinbeck's work, this novel is somewhat different in that it explores a more mythological perspective on man's relationship to his land. Joseph Wayne's hunger for the land was a common sentiment among those who settled the west. A yearning for land is, in fact, the dream upon which most of the Western United States was founded. Where Joseph differs drastically from his pioneering brethren, however, is in his belief and participation in pagan forms of vegetative worship, beginning with the deification of an oak tree and ending in Joseph's self-sacrifice in an attempt to bring rain. At the heart of Steinbeck's portrayal of Joseph as a man ultimately disappointed by his unknown gods is a thinly veiled caution against reliance upon unseen forces and unproven rituals. When Joseph Wayne arrives in the valley of Nuestra Senora, he falls to the earth and makes love to the land. He even sees the land as his wife. This is the start of his tragic relationship with the land and its demands. When he builds hi
176) Joseph is not only the king of the land, however, but also its priest. Were it a fable, the moral might read; be careful what you wish for, for the end does not always justify the means. " In many versions of the myth, the old king must die to make way for the new. Says Frazer, "The Mundaris in Assam think that if a tree in the sacred grove is felled the sylvan gods evince their displeasure by withholding rain. " Men in Greece, as well as across Europe, sacrificed to oak trees for rain and for good crops, believing that "trees or tree-spirits are believed to give rain and sunshine. As he begins construction on his home, a letter arrives bearing the news of his father's death, in which his father's final words are, "I don't know whether Joseph can pick good land. Lisca says, "Joseph himself moves from simple propitiation to a sense of responsibility for the fertility of his land and finally, as he sacrifices himself on the altar rock, to an identification with the earth itself, through which he becomes a manifestation of the life force. No longer is the tree the caretaker of the land; that burden has now shifted to Joseph's shoulders. As the story continues, Joseph progresses from treating the oak tree with the reverence due an ancestor to offering it sacrifices as one would a god, in hopes of securing a rainy winter for his land. 17) shows the first of several leaps of absolute faith Joseph makes during the story and marks the point at which he can no longer accept a non-teleological way of thinking. Belief in the oak as the god of rain dates as far back as the ancient Greeks, who "associated the tree with their highest god, Zeus or Jupiter, the divinity of the sky, the rain, and the thunder.
Common topics in this essay:
Joseph Wayne,
Mundaris Assam,
Father Angelo,
Greece Europe,
Nuestra Senora,
Lisca Joseph,
Western United,
Yes Joseph,
Immediately Joseph,
Fisher King,
oak tree,
actions acting,
father tree,
figure god,
final moments,
relationship land,
king die,
attempt bring,
joseph's self-sacrifice,
collective unconscious,
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Acceptance Essays
