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

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...

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... read and his beautiful and descriptive style allow me to say with absolute certainty that Steinbeck has developed into being my favorite author over the past few months. Yet, as I bring this paper to a close, I know that I have barely skimmed the surface of who this man was and why he wrote what he did the way he did.

Works Cited

"Dust Storm." University of Washington. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2015. .

"John Steinbeck." Notable Biographies. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2015. .

Parini, Jay. John Steinbeck. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1995. Print.

Steinbeck, John. Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Books, 1985. Print.

"Turtle." Stuff Point. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2015. .