John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck's Animal-Nature ThemesJohn Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902. He attended Salinas High School and later studied marine biology at Stanford University, but he never got his degree. Instead he moved to New York and became a reporter for the New York American, but he was fired because he was such a poor reporter. He then moved to Monterey County and worked odd jobs just to get by. As a child, Steinbeck read continually and was fascinated with the life of a 1600's English pirate, Sir Henry Morgan. In 1929 he wrote his first novel, Cup of Gold, which was based on Morgan's life. In 1930 John married his first wife, Carol Henning, but in 1943 they divorced. In Literature and its Times, it states, "Steinbeck's relationship with his wife Carol, affected where and probably how Of Mice and Men was written (274). He married later again that year to Gwyn Conger, and a third time in 1950 to Elaine Anderson. During his rough marriages, was when Steinbeck became well known. Cup of Gold, The Pastures of Heaven, and To a God Unknown were his first three novels, but unsuccessful. Steinbeck was controversial because of his support for the underprivileged. His novels were intentionally written for children,
In the book, Lennie commits a horrible, but accidental crime. The impressionistic realism plot is of two migrant workers sharing the same dream of owning their own farm. They take up jobs at a ranch where their hopes are destroyed by an accidental tragedy. Lennie Small, a mentally challenged farmer, and his friend George Milton are in search of land. His books were well-known during this time because of writings about beauty and agriculture. Bloom said, "As in Of Mice and Men, we have in The Grapes of Wrath the joining of the old and new Steinbeck" (34). The novels both have realism type plots and the same setting. Some of the characters in the novels were also alike in some ways. Later it was made into an acclaimed film. His description of these people, however, brings out the theme of humans verses animals. His "fatal flaw" represents the animal in nature, and the normally functioning society symbolizes the human. After Steinbeck wrote the novel The Grapes of Wrath, critics argued that his knowledge and writings about the "Okies" was ignorant. The dominant themes in his work are based on the agriculture around his birthplace and the struggle between human beings and nature. He used this theme in his most successful novels, The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.
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Acceptance Essays
