Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis of John Steinbeck
Writers who influenced john steinbeck
Analysis of John Steinbeck
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Analysis of John Steinbeck
In American literature there have been or still are many good writers. John Steinbeck is one of those whose name is still towards the top of the list of great American authors. Steinbeck grew up during some tough times, he lived through the Great Depression, The Dust Bowl and World War II. These events only made him a stronger writer because of the horrendous outcome they had on America. Born on February 27th, 1902 in Salinas, California John Ernst Steinbeck II came into a very happy lifestyle family. Steinbeck really enjoyed the fertile land in salinas, and he grew to appreciate it as he grew older. Steinbeck grew up with two older sisters (Elizabeth and Esther) and younger sister (Mary). His father was the treasurer of Monterey County and his mom was a school teacher. Steinbeck when growing up with his family was a part of the middle class which they lived comfortably. When it came to writing later most of his influences came from his family. His only real inspiration came from himself or others including family and friends helped him strive in his writings. He later wrote his first popular book, "Tortilla Flat", on how he noticed that many people were migrant laborers when we was growing up. Steinbeck went to high school in his hometown of Salinas, California and graduated in 1919. "He then attended Stanford University intermittently between the years 1919 to 1925, but he never received a degree."( "John Steinbeck - Biographical") "Steinbeck worked as a laboratory assistant and farm laborer to support himself through six years of study at Stanford University, where he took only those courses that interested him without seeking a degree." ("John Steinbeck Biography.") John Steinbeck was considered one of the greates... ... middle of paper ... ...uch when he was alive and write many novels and other books in his lifetime. Many of his books he published were or still are at the top of the list of what to read in today's world. John Steinbeck really made an impact on literature in which we see today. Works Cited "John Steinbeck - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 19 May 2014. "John Steinbeck Biography." . N.p., 19 May 2014. Web. 19 May 2014. . "John Steinbeck biography." . Www.Biography.com, n.d. Web. 19 May 2014. . "John Steinbeck ." . www.Shmoop.com, n.d. Web. 19 May 2014. . "Chapter 2." The Grapes of Wrath. : , . . Print.
John Steinbeck was born in 1902, in California's Salinas Valley, a region that would eventually serve as the setting for Of Mice and Men, as well as many of his other works. He studied literature and writing at Stanford University. He then moved to New York City and worked as a laborer and journalist for five years, until he completed his first novel in 1929, Cup of Gold. With the publication of Tortilla Flat in 1935, Steinbeck achieved fame and became a popular author. He wrote many novels about the California laboring class. Two of his more famous novels included Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck got the title for Of Mice and Men from a line of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry." In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck includes the theme of loyalty and sacrifice between friends. Steinbeck illustrates the loyalty and sacrifice between friends through the friendship of Lennie and George.
Steinbeck upon creating the novel in the 1930’s seen and was experiencing some of the things he wrote on. In the beginning he introduced to us a friendship between two opposite men. One man, George Wilson, is a little man compared to his companion. His friend, on the other hand, was a giant who was naïve as a new born baby. His name was Lennie Smalls. Lennie Smalls was a character that Steinbeck used to allow his audience to see that although he had a good heart and was seemingly helpless, that one day his strength would be the cause of his downfall. Questions on whether or not Steinbeck’s readers should believe in the image in which it is given or primarily based it on the novel being written in a bad environment from the first of the novel. Steinbeck knew upon writing that readers tend to cling and fall for the caring, loving, and misunderstood bad guy trying to prove his innocence against all evil brought to him. So Steinbeck created Lennie to try and portray this character to his audience. Steinbeck had to be sure that all elements presented in the novel were able flow good and complete the recipe (Krutch 29-30).
I. John Steinbeck used his personal experiences as a laborer to write many of his novels like Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.
John Steinbeck was perhaps the best author of all time. He was the winner of a Nobel Prize, and among other accomplishments, Steinbeck published nineteen novels and made many movies during his lifetime. All of his experience and knowledge are shown through his novels. A reader can tell, just in reading a novel by Steinbeck, that he had been through a lot throughout his life. Also, Steinbeck worked very hard to accomplish everything that he did during his lifetime. Nothing came very easily to him, and he had to earn everything he owned. This helped him in his writing, because he was able to write about real people and real experiences. John Steinbeck got his inspiration from life experiences, people he knew, and places he had gone.
The quote that inspired John Steinbeck was the best laid schemes often go off track can be seen in the novel of Mice and Men. When Curley's wife met a man in her childhood that offered her to be an actress but the chance went away and she later died. Then Curley wanted to be a professional boxer but the dream never happened and he became a farmer then got his hand broken for trying to be tough. George and Lennie were going to buy a farm to live off the fat of the land then Lennie had to get in trouble and George had to give up the dream and kill Lennie for what he had done.
In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck explores human relationships through characters who are barely fleshed out beyond the boundary of a stereotype. Many of the minor characters even have names which reflect their status as a symbol of their position rather than thinking, feeling people. Crooks, the African American stable buck, represents the "crooked" thinking of the majority toward other races during the time period while Curley's wife represents only that- the wife of a man. Her character serves to show the place of women in a man's society. Likewise, the two main characters, George and Lennie, each serve as a symbol of psychological and physical traits which complement each other to show how important human relationships are, regardless of the traits a person may possess. All human beings develop relationships with others because those relationships fill particular needs. Those needs may be physical, economic, psychological, or social.
There is only one way an author can get their readers to cry, laugh, and love or just enjoy their master pieces. That one way is through the uses of literary devices such as similes, metaphors and personification. These are the small things that brings the author`s thoughts and ideas alive. The author`s ability to use literary devices through the book helps in direct characterization and lets readers get a better understanding of Lennie and George, the two main characters Of Mice and Men. It also helps in keeping readers thinking on their feet and constantly questioning George and Lennie`s next move while in Salinas, California. John Steinbeck, in his novel Of Mice and Men, makes use of similes and foreshadowing to keep readers in touch with the characters and at the edge of their seats throughout the story.
1925: He went to New York City, working odd jobs, including manual labor for the
...erstanding of Steinbeck as a man and as one of the most insightful authors of American Literature.
John Steinbeck's novels expressed an ecological world view that has only recently begun to accumulate proponents. This holistic view grew during an era when such thinking was unpopular, and one must wonder how this growth could have occurred in a climate which was hostile for it. Some investigation shows that the seeds for this view already existed in his childhood and were nurtured through his exposure to ideas in marine biology.
John Steinbeck was a major literary figure in the 20th century and continues to be widely read in the twenty-first century. Steinbeck was born on February 27,1902 (About John Steinbeck) in the Salinas Valley of California. (Laskov) "His father, John Steinbeck, Sr. was the County Treasurer and his mother, Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, was a former school teacher. As a youth, he worked as a ranch hand and fruit picker. (John Steinbeck [2])". "He attended the local high school and studied marine biology at Stanford University between 1920 and 1926, but did not take a degree" (John Steinbeck [1]). Steinbeck's fascination with science and biology is evident in most of his works such as in this quote from the Grapes of Wrath: "Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up in the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments." (Steinbeck 165) As Steinbeck began his writing career, he took many other jobs to support himself. For a short time, he worked at the American in New York City, and then returned to California where he worked various jobs such as a painter and fruit-picker before taking a job as a caretaker for a Lake Tahoe Estate. (John Steinbeck [1]) His job as a caretaker allowed him time to write and by the time he left the job in 1930 he had already published his first book, Cup of Gold (1929) and married his first wife Carol Henning (John Steinbeck [2]). After his marriage he moved to Pacific Grove, California where, in the early 1930s, Steinbeck met Edward Ricketts, a marine biologist, whose views on the interdependence of all life deeply influenced Steinbeck's novel To a God Unknown (1933). (John Steinbeck [2])
John Steinbeck and Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK Jr.) have both gone down in American literature as some of the most influential authors, but why? Steinbeck was an influential author throughout the 20th century with pieces in many genres. On the flip side is Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights leader in the fight against racial discrimination. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the style of these two authors, it is necessary to compare them on the bases of repetition, tone, and purpose.
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. Between 1919 and 1925 Steinbeck was acknowledged as a special student at Stanford University. According to Peter Lisac, “Variously employed as a had-carrier, fruit-picker, apprentice printer, laboratory assistant, caretaker, surveyor, reporter, writer, and foreign correspondent let him acquire knowledge in many areas.” (1) Even in his youth, Steinbeck developed a love of the natural world and diverse cultures. Steinbeck produced two children from his second wife, Elaine Scott. The early 1930’s became a struggle for Steinbeck, both in his
Ever since F. Scott Fitzgerald's death many of us are familiar with numerous of his stories. At least a dozen of his stories are largely prominent when it comes to American Literature. He will always be known as a major American writer. F. Scott Fitzgerald's stories are a colossal and magnificent part of literature that will never be forgotten.
One of the assertions Steinbeck makes about American culture and society in Travels with Charley is that everyone in America wants to leave where they are from to go anywhere but where they are. An example of this in the book is on page twelve, when a young boy kept going to the Rocinante and just examining it, then one day he tried to convince Steinbeck to take him with him by telling him he’d do dishes and other various choirs. Another example of how everyone wants to leave where they are from and go somewhere else is when Steinbeck said,