John Steinbeck: A Common Mans Man

John Steinbeck: A Common Man's Man


     "I never wrote two books alike", once said John Steinbeck (Shaw, 10).  That

may be true, but I think that he wrote many of his novels and short stories

based on many of the same views. He often focused on social problems, like the “

haves” verses  the "have nots", and made the reader want to encourage the

underdog. Steinbeck's back ground and concern for the common man made him one of

the best writers for human rights.

     John Steinbeck was born in Salians, California and spent most of his life

there or around Salians, because of that he often modeled his stories and the

characters around the land he loved and the experiences he encountered.  He

lived in Salians until 1919, when he left for Stanford University, he only

enrolled in the courses that pleased him - literature, creative writing and

majoring in Marine Biology.  He left in 1925, without a degree.  Even though he

didn't graduate his books showed the results of his five years spent there. His

books display a considerable reading of the Greek and Roman historians, and the

medieval and Renaissance fabalists and the biological sciences (Shaw 11). He

then moved to New York and tried his hand as a construction worker and as a

reporter for the American.  (Covici , xxxv). Steinbeck then moved back to

California and lived with his wife at Pacific Grove. In 1934, he wrote for the

San Franciso News,  he was assigned to write several articles about the 3,000

migrants flooded in at Kings County. The plight of the migrant workers motivated

him to help and document their struggle. The money he earned from the newspaper

allowed him to travel to their home and see why their reason for leaving and

traveled to California with them, sharing in with their hardships (Steinbeck,

127). Because John Steinbeck was able to travel with the Okies, he was able to

accurately portray  them and their struggles.

     Each book that he wrote had settings in the places where he has either

lived or wanted to live. He presented the land as it was. The characters in his

stories experienced floods, drought, and other natural disasters, while in the

Salians Valley (Shaw, 5).

     What Steinbeck wrote was very factual and in depth. He exhibited his

awareness of man and his surroundings, in his early books, before people ate, a

pig had to be slaughtered, and often that and before they ate, it had to be

cooked. Also when a car broke down, the characters had to find parts, and fixed

it themselves (Shaw, 13).

     Many people consider that John Steinbeck novels are records of social

history. His books are the history of plain people and society as a whole, many

of his books focused on the Great Depression, Social Prejudice, religion, the

whore house, and the automobile (Rundell, 4).  He may be considered as a

Sentimentalist, because of his concerns for the common man, human values, for

warmth and love and understanding. The social relevance of his writhings reveals

him as a reformer (Covici, xxii). In his novel The Pastures of Heaven, Steinbeck

brings up the issues of Japanese Americans fitting into social groups, and in

East of Eden,  he examines the problems of intelligent and educated Chinese-

Americans in the California setting. John Steinbeck only once seriously

considers the problems of Negroes in Society. Crooks, the stable boy in Of Mice

and Men, was an outcast  and never destine to fit into the generally white

society  of ranching.

     Not
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