John Steinbeck was born to middle-lower class family in the farming

John Steinbeck was born to middle-lower class family in the farming

community of Salinas, California. John’s

Steinbeck

Imagine… your town is suddenly stricken with poverty. Your family

business goes under because the economy of your local community can no

longer support it. Herds of your closest friends continually move out

of the town you grew up in due to a severe shortage of work. The

basic necessities of life are so scarce that everyone around you

reverts to their animalistic urges to survive. Those who you have

came to trust, betray you and your family for selfish reasons. This

chaos was typical every day life during the youth of one of America’s

greatest writers, John Steinbeck. The environment that engulfed John

Stein beck’s early life shaped his literary style to focus on the

economic hardships of rural labor and man’s every day struggles with

natural urges.

John Steinbeck was born to middle-lower class family in the farming

community of Salinas, California. John’s father, who was a

businessman and politician, experienced great difficulty maintaining a

successful business in their small town. John watched his father fail

at many endeavors including managing a flour plant and opening a feed

and grain store as well as the political corruption his father faced

as County Treasurer (Shillinglaw). No matter how much financial

adversity John’s family faced, his father always kept a sunny

disposition and took the family on frequent trips across California.

These small towns and cities John and his family would visit, later

served to be the local of his future novels such as: East of Eden and

The Red Pony(Fontenrose, 2). John even used his home town of Salinas

to serve as the setting for the shor...

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...mericans as he did in previous works. In

1960, John published The Winter of Discontent which attacked

contemporary American ideals an longed for conservative ideals. This

piece, which did not achieve the notoriety that Steinbeck hoped for,

would be his last novel before his death in 1968(Shillinglaw).

Steinbeck witnessed his home town crumble due to financial strain as a

child. He felt the effects of the poor economy as his father bounced

from job to job trying to make ends meet. In Steinbeck’s early

adulthood he worked odd jobs with the poorest of the poor, staying in

touch with the injustices these people faced everyday and witnessing

how humans react in times of need. The environment that engulfed John

Stein beck’s early life shaped his literary style to focus on the

economic hardships of rural labor and man’s every day struggles with

natural urges.