Ethan Allen Hawley, of The Winter of Our Discontent, lived for many years in New Baytown as a man who wanted nothing more than to make his wife and children happy. He was a simple man created by John Steinbeck, who had as many men dreams. Dreams of money and power. Ethan may have had the money and power he wished for if it wasn’t for his father, who had lost the family fortune. As a consequence of this, he was forced to work as a grocery clerk for a living. He felt as if his wife was embarrassed to be married to such an indigent man. Ethan wanted to be a man of power and fortune so badly he went to extremes. He made an anonymous tip to an Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding his store owner to get him in trouble for his own benefit. Also, Ethan gave money to his childhood friend that had become a drunk, evidently knowing what he would do with the money. Everything he did wasn’t wrong on his own accord. He was becoming a degrading man who lived for money. Ethan couldn’t be blamed for all of his decisions to gain wealth. He was influenced by Margie-Young Hunt who told him to be more outgoing and ruthless. And the local banker who told him to make bargains. Also, his friend Joey, a bank teller, taught him how to rob a bank. Ethan was thinking of following through with this action one day, but was luckily interrupted by a man before preceding. His morals were beginning to regress, just like the rest of New Bayton. This wasn’t only shown through Ethan, but his own son. Steinbeck showed what America was becoming through this story: a country full of people who were more focused on material wealth rather than honesty and ideals. It was the beginning of America’s moral degeneration.
Ethan had a nasty rage for the boss of the g...
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...t’s where it all went wrong for Ethan and his son. If they realized sooner maybe they could have saved themselves. Although, Ethan and his son weren’t the only ones with decaying morals in the neighborhood. Mr. Baker, the man who owned the town bank, would have done all the same deeds as Ethan. In fact, Baker was the one who had the idea for Ethan to make an anonymous tip to the Immigration and Naturalization Service; to get Marullo deported. By Steinbeck having Baker encourage Ethan to get a man deported, shows that Steinbeck wanted to express that morals of others were also decaying, not just Ethans. Someone willing to kill for money like Ethan, could end up dead. If Ethan had focused on his principles he may have lived another day to see his family. Ideals are something that can last forever, unlike material wealth. Ethan Allen Hawley learned this it was too late.
Ethan was an intelligent man, he had high dreams for himself as an engineer, and he wanted to have a life away from the ceaseless drudgery of life in Starksville. When his mother died leaving Zeena without a place to go, Ethan, being the kind man he was, offered to marry her because he felt obligated to do so. This decision however shut out his hopes for a better life. In order for Ethan to get an education he must have money. In order for Ethan to get money he must sell the farm. And with a new wife to take care of he could not possibly manage it. Ethan's decision to marry Zeena had fettered his social mobility and had brought about the backlash of Zeena's discontent.
Throughout “Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton renders the idea that freedom is just out of reach from the protagonist, Ethan Frome. The presence of a doomed love affair and an unforgiving love triangle forces Ethan to choose between his duty and his personal desire. Wharton’s use of archetypes in the novella emphasizes how Ethan will make choices that will ultimately lead to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s, “Ethan Frome.” Ethan is wedged between his duty as a husband and his desire for happiness; however, rather than choosing one or the other, Ethan’s indecisiveness makes not only himself, but Mattie and Zeena miserable.
In the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the protagonist Ethan Frome has an unusual personality. Along with this, Ethan’s motivations seem hidden. Ethan mainly associates with his wife Zeena and his young lover Mattie. The reason his social circle is limited is because the town has shunned him. The people have isolated him due to the decisions he has made. The story begins with the new town Reverend who forms a special interest in Ethan. Furthermore, the story goes back in time to explain why the town treats Ethan the way they do.
Ethan Frome is the main character of Edith Wharton’s tragic novel. Ethan lives the bitterness of his youth’s lost opportunities, and dissatisfaction with his joyless life and empty marriage. Throughout the story Ethan is trapped by social limits and obligations to his wife. He lives an unhappy life with many responsibilities and little freedom. Ethan Frome studied science in college for a year and probably would have succeeded as an engineer or physicist had he not been summoned home to run the family farm and mill. Ethan quickly ended his schooling and went to run the family farm and mill because he feels it is his responsibility. He marries Zeena after the death of his mother, in an unsuccessful attempt to escape silence, isolation, and loneliness. Ethan also feels the responsibility to marry Zeena as a way to compensate her for giving up part of her life to nurse his mother. After marring Zeena he forgets his hope of every continuing his education and he is now forced to remain married to someone he does not truly love.
From the beginning of the story, society opposed Ethan Frome in any ways. To begin with, he was a prisoner with his wife, Zeena. Just because Zeena took care of his mother as she was dying, Ethan felt like she was the woman for him. However, when Zeena’s cousin Mattie came to live with them, he instantly fell in love with her, and felt nothing but audacity towards his wife. When Zeena goes away due to her illness, Ethan and Mattie sit at home planning their future ahead of them. He plans to elope and run away with Mattie, but he cannot lie to his neighbors, Mr and Mrs. Hale in order to achieve the money he needs. In the end, Ethan decides to abandon life itself along with his true love Mattie. Ethan was a prisoner to poverty. When he was young, he wanted to leave his family farm in order to move to a larger town to become an engineer. However, that plan backfired and he was trapped in Starkfield for life. Society does not want Ethan to be happy for he committed adultery and treated his wife like she didn’t matter. The gravestones in his yard are a reminder t...
Set in 1881 Starkfield, Massachusetts, Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome reveals a recurring theme in literature: “the classic war between a passion and responsibility.” In this novel, protagonist Ethan Frome confronts the demands of two private passions: his desire to become an engineer that conflicts with his moral duty to his family and his love for Mattie Silver that conflicts with his obligations to his wife Zeena. Inevitably placing the desires and well-being of his family before his own, Ethan experiences only “‘[s]ickness and trouble’” and “‘that’s what [he’s] had his plate full up with, ever since the very first helping’” (12). The reader understands Ethan’s struggles when he abandons his studies at Worcester, when he considers running
Though too intelligent for rural life, Ethan finds himself stuck in an average man's shoes. Leaving any opportunity he had to become someone in life, Ethan moves back to Starkfield to take care of his ailing mother and attend to their farm(Wharton 29). Rather than living a lonesome life after his mother passes away, Ethan asks Zeena to stay with him, which turns out to be his first mistake (Wharton, 29). As soon as his mother passed away, Ethan should have asked Zeena to leave and sold his farm. His love for learning and keenness for engineering could have led Ethan to a much better life. Unfortunately, he feels obligated to stay with Zeena, thus ending all hope for a better life.
While everyone is legally intitled to the pursuit of happiness, the truth of the matter is that very few ever achieve it. Ones morals, standards, conscious, or perhaps even fate, keep them from accepting a pure form of satisfaction. While a person can search and struggle their entire life for happiness, the truth of the matter is, that they will never be happy with what they have infront of them. The character Ethan, portrayed in Edith Whartons novel, Ethan Frome, is emotionally weak, he battles constantly with what he wants, how to get it, and what is ethically right. Ethan was obligated to care for his wife Zeena until death, but his misguided decisions lead him to be concerned only with his immediate happiness. Much like Ethan in Ethan Frome, people who concentrate on personal happiness, without factoring in personal responsibility, set themselves up for a painful reality check.
This forced him to choose between love and responsibility, though he knew he wouldn’t be satisfied no matter what he chose. To choose responsibility would be to sentence himself to a life of darkness and winter chill. To choose love would be to go against his morals by abandoning his wife and leaving her with the burden of their struggling land. There was no option that would leave Ethan fully satisfied. In a twisted way Ethan did find a sort of medium between love and responsibility, but it turned his love bitter and left him an empty shell caught between the woman he felt obligated to stay with and the woman he hoped to love. A quote in the beginning of the book ties together the metaphor and the theme by saying, “He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe” this is a powerful quote because what Ethan is going through is so strongly represented by the frozen landscape. He is barren of love, and is trapped in an endless cold winter of darkness and misery brought upon him by the choice between love and
A major drought, over-cultivation, and a country suffering from one of the greatest depressions in history are all it took to displace hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners and send them, and everything they had, out west. The Dust Bowl ruined crops all across the Great Plains region, crops that people depended on for survival. When no food could be grown and no money could be made, entire families, sometimes up to 8 people or more, packed up everything they had and began the journey to California, where it was rumored that jobs were in full supply. Without even closing the door behind them in some cases, these families left farms that had been with them for generations, only to end up in a foreign place where they were neither welcomed nor needed in great quantity. This would cause immense problems for their futures. It is these problems that author John Steinbeck spent a great deal of his time studying and documenting so that Americans could better understand the plight of these migrant farmers, otherwise known as "Okies." From touring many of these "Hoovervilles" and "Little Oklahomas" (pg. v) Steinbeck was given a firsthand look at the issues and hardships these migrant workers faced on a daily basis. With the help of Tom Collins, manager of a federal migrant labor camp, Steinbeck began a "personal and literary journey" (pg. v), revealing to the world the painful truth of these "Okies" in his book Harvest Gypsies.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is considered a classic novel by many in the literary field. The trials and tribulations of the Joad family and other migrants is told throughout this novel. In order to gain a perspective into the lives of "Oakies", Steinbeck uses themes and language of the troubling times of the Great Depression. Some of these aspects are critiqued because of their vulgarity and adult nature. In some places, The Grapes of Wrath has been edited or banned. These challenges undermine Steinbeck's attempts to add reality to the novel and are unjustified.
has the mental age of a child and does not see the reason why George
one day want their own plot so they can 'live off the fatta the lan'
“The Grapes of Wrath” was one of the books which impressed me a lot and give me a deeper understanding of American history and how people lived at that time. This book was written by a seriously famous Californian writer, John Steinbeck, and when it was first published in 1939, it provoked a stir in American society and the readers. The Grapes of Wrath is a story of hunger and pain and a family's struggle to survive and better themselves during the Great Depression. This story about the Joad family is a story of contradictions in our society. The rich do well and the poor starve. “The Grapes of Wrath” gave a voice to the tens of thousands of Americans affected by the Dust Bowl tragedy in Midwestern farming states. The novel and the subsequent
John Steinbeck's The Pearl tells the story of a pearl diver named Kino. Kino lives a simple life, and adores his family. At the beginning of the story Steinbeck shows how content Kino’s family is. Everything seems to be going perfect for Kino and his family that is until the discovery of the most wonderful pearl in the world changes his life forever. As the story advances Kino’s newborn, Coyotito gets bitten by a scorpion. Kino’s wife, Juana insists that they take Coyotito to the town’s doctor. Inevitably the doctor refuses to help Coyotito because Kino is unable to make a payment.