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 his house on his new homestead, he chooses a site sheltered by an ancient, gnarled oak tree. From the start, he feels an inexplicable affinity for the tree, sensing some familiarity in it, and defending it against the remarks of the lumber men, who caution him its branches will fall upon his roof while he sleeps. 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.... I'll have to go out there and see."(p.16) Immediately Joseph focuses on the oak tree, and is convinced it has become his father, saying to Juanito, "My father is in that tree! My father is that tree!" (p. 17) He speaks to the tree, welcoming his ...