John Steinbeck Disillusionment

In Bloom’s How to Write about John Steinbeck, Catherine Kordich wrote, “Steinbeck made understandable the misunderstood. His books depict the experience of the common person, the powerless, and the underdog with conviction, empathy and poignancy” (48). John Steinbeck used the mass movements and events of the age in which he wrote to create characters understand the grand scheme of their time (Kordich 49). He connected with the people of America on a personal level by writing about their social and economic problems. Steinbeck is worthy of the Nobel Prize because he spoke to the growing feeling of disillusionment in America. This disillusionment is portrayed through the characters and their experiences in Of Mice and Men and East of Eden
Before

His upbringing in a small town out him “on equal terms with the workers’ families in this rather diversified area. Steinbeck deserves the Nobel Prize because he wrote about the disillusionment that Americans were feeling when no other author dared to. He presented the everyday man’s feelings through his characters and their experiences. Many of the dustbowl migrants longed to own their own farm, just as George and Lennie felt in Of Mice and Men. Although it was before their time, many Americans also felt a connection to the characters in East of Eden as they realized that America was not as superior and invincible as they had previously thought. In his acceptance speech, Steinbeck said, “The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.” Steinbeck took all the faults and failures that many were too scared to examine, and created beautiful Nobel Prize worthy stories that the every American could relate to in more than one aspect of their