The Life Journey of John Steinbeck

1272 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Influence on family

The Life Journey of John Steinbeck Every great writer had their own influences, John Steinbeck was no exception. Steinbeck’s influences cam from family, friends, and his environment to write detailed descriptions to involve or influence the reader. Whenever someone reads one of John Steinbeck’s works they are in immersed in the scene he is describing, he makes you feel as if you are right there experiencing everything there first hand. Steinbeck had a relatively normal childhood growing up in Salinas Valley California. Steinbeck was born on February 27 1902 in Salinas Valley, California. His father was John Steinbeck Sr. who worked as the Monterey County Treasurer, and his mother, Olivia, worked as a school teacher. Steinbeck mother always encouraged him to keep reading and writing. When Steinbeck was older his mother and father forced him to attend a college. To appease his parents he attended Stanford University, to appease himself he took only classes that interested him, such as classical and British literature, writing courses, and some science. Drifting in and out of college Steinbeck took many odd jobs such as a ranch hand, fruit picker, factory worker, sales clerk, freelance news paper writer, construction worker, and farm laborer. These odd jobs that Steinbeck took later would become the influence for his characters and themes in his novels. Steinbeck yearned for more life experiences, so instead of taking a degree at Stanford he dropped out of college, worked, and wrote. His passion was writing all along. “Writing was indeed his passion, not only during the Stanford years but throughout his life” (Shillinglaw 1). Steinbeck’s one and only passion was writing, even at a young age. When he was a young boy his moth... ... middle of paper ... ...ohn Steinbeck: A Biography.” Buzzel(2000) 11 Mar 2010 Trosow, Esther. “John Steinbeck’s Biography” 1995 11 mar 2010 Ruppert, Shawna S, “ California Authors John Steinbeck.” California Author-John Steinbeck 20 Sep 2009 Ezine Article.com 19 Mar 2010 Handschuh, Judith “John Steinbeck.” Teenreads,com (2003) 19 Mar 2010 Shillinglaw, Susan Dr. “John Steinbeck, American writer” Martha Heasly Cosx Center for Steinbeck Studies 19 Mar 2010 Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Dallas, Pennsylvania: Penguin Books, 1939. 1-502. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Steinbeck’s quest for friendship, dreams, and personality in Of Mice and Men

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    Curly and Lennie, two men that traveled together everywhere they went. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck describes friendship, dreams, and personality to describe Lennie and Curly adventures.

    Read More

  • Parallels Between The Grapes of Wrath and the Life of John Steinbeck

    2935 Words  | 6 Pages

    John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. He had a pretty average childhood with a supportive family and a decent education. While growing up his mother, Olive Hamilton, was a major factor in his education, since she was a schoolteacher and made it her duty to educate him. His mother most likely was the reason he developed a love of reading and literature and ended up going to Stanford. In his child there were only two major events that affected his writing. These were when he worked on a ranch with migrant workers, and when his father’s business failed and the family was temporarily thrust into poverty. These two events most likely sparked his interest in the poor lives of the migrant workers. His experiences on the ranch taught him about the harsh and impoverished lives of the migrant workers and his experience of being in poverty enabled him to understand what life is like when one is poor, as the migrant workers were. This understanding inspired some of his most famous writings such as: Of Mice and Men, In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath. These experiences also allowed him to add a sense of realism to the stories. After graduating from his public high school in 1919 Steinbeck went to Stanford. He went there for 5 years before dropping out without a degree and moving to New York. The following years were highly tumultuous for Steinbeck and he held many odd jobs while trying to get his writing published. In 1935 he finally got his first big break when his critically acclaimed novel, Tortilla Flats, was published. After this he became quite successful and well known although the skill in his writing seems to fall after WWII. After researching his life I decided to focus on using his most famous n...

    Read More

  • How does Steinbeck present the theme of conflict in the setting and characters?

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    The theme of conflict looms over the entire plot in Of Mice and Men, beginning in the first scene, and persisting until the end. The conflict ranges from the captivating way Steinbeck makes man fight with his inner animalistic behaviour to the ever imminent conflict between George and Lennie with their drastically different personalities, appearances and understanding of their ideal, the American Dream. The Great Depression forms the backbone of Steinbeck’s novella, with events such as the stock market crash to the recovery from the First World War, allowing him to keep the realism of the conflicting events but still leave room for the intriguing, deeper side to each of the characters. Steinbeck manages to mask conflict within the novella by not simply stating the conflict, but using language and literary techniques he subtly implies it.

    Read More

  • Cannery Row And Grapes Of Wrath

    1764 Words  | 4 Pages

    John Steinbeck is a brilliant storyteller capable of crafting such vibrant and captivating literary works that one can effortlessly exit their own life and enter another. John Steinbeck has a passion for divulging the flaws of human nature and he is not afraid to write about the raw and tragic misfortune that plagued the lives of people like the Okies in the Grapes of Wrath and residents of Cannery Row. He was also a brilliant commentator who contributed brilliant opinions on the political and social systems in our world. In heart wrenching words he tells us the story of peoples lives, which were full of love, corruption, faith and growth. However in the novels of Cannery Row and The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck specifically attempts to convey the thematic elements of socialism, survival and the role of women to blatantly present the lifestyle of down trodden migrant workers and the diverse ecosystem of prostitutes, marine biologists, store owners and drunks in a way that is unapologetic and mentally stimulating.

    Read More

  • The Grapes of Wrath: No One Man, But One Common Soul

    2393 Words  | 5 Pages

    first significant author to build his own set of beliefs, which some would. refer to as a “religion,” upon a naturalistic basis.  Because of his “ religious” style on a naturalistic basis, he is able to relate to a man with a natural soul that they own, and combine them into a larger grouping. more important to the soul (220). & nbsp; America and American literature was founded on the spirit of necessity of the individual.  But Steinbeck disagrees with this idea of individualism.&nbsp ; He feels that the individual by himself is not going to succeed through the efforts of his own soul.  It is through the combined effort of everyone's souls  that a common goal is able to be reached. (Critical 5).  The Grapes of Wrath uses the naturalistic movement of literature to prove this as well.  Forces like economic, social, etc. environmental, and genetic forces fight against the Joads (the main family).

    Read More

  • John Steinbeck Outline

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Parrallels in the Life of John Steinbeck and the Characters in his Works

    2511 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Power In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    Steinbeck has become one of my favorite writers -- for the love he has for his characters, the loveliness of his language, and the clear-eyed conviction with which he writes. Originally, I failed to see the beauty in Steinbeck's people, though it is plainly there. Perhaps I hadn't seen enough of the world myself, yet. There was a lot I didn't understand about people.

    Read More

  • Steinbeck as a Social Activist

    1501 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • John Steinbeck's View Of The World

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    Steinbeck's view of the world, expressed through his novels, was set within an ecological framework. His childhood environments played a role in the creation of this view, and his subsequent exposure to marine biology contributed to and elaborated upon it. This led to his ability to view organisms in an environment as symbiotic relationships within a whole-a superorganism.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, And Edgar Allan Poe

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.

    Read More

  • The Work of John Steinbeck

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    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])

    Read More

  • AP Essay

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • East Of Eden

    1559 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Of Mice and Men

    1198 Words  | 3 Pages

    Written in 1937, Of Mice and Men, by John Adolf Steinbeck Jr., American author and Pulitzer Prize winner, follows the lives of downtrodden farmhands, George and Lennie. As with many of Steinbeck's books, the themes in Of Mice and Men include his favored themes of class warfare and oppression of the working class. Steinbeck also focuses his literature on the power of friendship and the corrupt nature of mankind. In 1993, Professor Thomas Scarseth wrote a critical analysis of the novella analyzing many aspects of Steinbeck’s work including the presentation, themes, and writing style. In his essay, Scarseth explains the key themes of the Novella. He noted that the corrupted nature of man, the injustice of life, and the power of friendship were three important themes of the book. Much of Scarseth’s analysis contained numerous thoughtful insights. Were his insights and opinions valid, or were his, and Steinbeck’s, perspectives on these issues flawed?

    Read More

More about The Life Journey of John Steinbeck

Open Document