John Steinbeck.doc

教育2班 John SteinbeckSocial backgroundThe great depression The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II.It Started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s. The depression originated in the U.S., starting with the fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929 and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29,1929 (known as Black Tuesday). From there, it quickly spread to almost every country in the world. And it had results about two parts. The one was the dim decade of 1930s replacing the glittering 1920s; banks failed, factories closed and agriculture withered;jobless millions roamed the street;the breadless stretched long; absolute poverty and struggled for survival is a nightmarish experience of live.The another was the physical wasteland replacing the spiritual wasteland.Biography John Ernst Steinbeck, the foremost novelist of the Great Depression. He was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was of German, English, and Irish descent.Johann Adolf Grosteinbeck, Steinbecks paternal grandfather, had shortened the family name to Steinbeck when he emigrated to the United States.The family farm in Heiligenhaus, Mettmann, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is still today named Grosteinbeck. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, served as Monterey County treasurer. Johns mother, Olive Hamilton, a former school teacher, shared Steinbecks passion for reading and writing.The Steinbecks were members of the Episcopal Church, although Steinbeck would later became agnostic. Steinbeck lived in a small rural town, no more than a frontier settlement, setting in some of the worlds most fertile land. He spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrant workers on Spreckels sugar beet farms. There he became aware of the harsher aspects of migrant life and the darker side of human nature, which supplied him with material expressed in such works as Of Mice and Men. He also explored his surroundings, walking across local forests, fields, and farms. While working at Spreckels Sugar Company, he would sometimes worked in their laboratory, which gave him time to write. He also had considerable mechanical aptitude and fondness for making his own repairs to things he owned. Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919 and went from there to study English Literature at Stanford University in Palo Alto, leaving, without a degree, in 1925. He traveled to New York City where he took odd jobs while trying to write. When he failed to have his work published, he returned to California and worked in 1928 as a tour guide and caretaker at Lake Tahoe, where he met Carol Henning, his first wife. Then they were married in January 1930 in Los Angeles, where, with friends, he attempted to make money manufacturing plaster mannequins. When their money ran out six months later due to the market being slow, Steinbeck and Carol moved back to Pacific Grove, California, to a cottage owned by his father, on the Monterey Peninsula a few blocks from the border of the city of Monterey, California. The elder Steinbecks gave John free housing, paper for his manuscripts, and from 1928, loans that allowed him to write without looking for work. During this period of the Great Depression, Steinbeck bought a small boat, and later claimed that he was able to live on the fish and crab that he gathered from the sea, as well as fresh vegetables from his garden and local farms. When that didnt work, Steinbeck and his wife were not above getting welfare, or rarely even stealing bacon from the local produce market. Whatever food they had, they would share with their friends. Carol became the model for Mary Talbot in Steinbecks novel Cannery Row. In 1930, Steinbeck met Ed Ricketts, who became a close friend and mentor to Steinbeck during the following decade teaching him a great deal about philosophy and biology. Ricketts, usually very quiet, yet likable, with an inner self-sufficiency and an encyclopedic knowledge of diverse subjects, became a focus of Steinbecks attention. Steinbecks wife began working at the lab as secretary-bookkeeper.Steinbeck himself began helping out on an informal basis.They formed a common bond based on their love of music and art, and John learned biology and Ricketts ecological philosophy.When Steinbeck had emotional upsets, Ricketts would sometimes played music for him.Although Carol accompanied Steinbeck on the trip, their marriage was beginning to suffer, and ended a year later, in 1941, even as Steinbeck worked on the manuscript for the book.In 1942, after his divorce from Carol he married Gwyndolyn Gwyn Conger.With his second wife Steinbeck had two sonsThomas (Thom) Myles Steinbeck(born 1944) andJohn Steinbeck IV(19461991). In May 1948, Steinbeck went back to California on an emergency trip to be with his friend Ed Ricketts, who had been seriously injured when his car was struck by a train. Ricketts died hours before Steinbeck arrived. Upon returning home, Steinbeck was confronted by Gwyndolyn Conger(his second wife), who asked for a divorce, which became final in August. Steinbeck spent the year after Ricketts death in deep depression. In June 1949, Steinbeck met stage-manager Elaine Scott at a restaurant in Carmel, California. Steinbeck and Scott eventually began a relationship and in December 1950 Steinbeck and Scott married.This third marriage for Steinbeck lasted until his death in 1968. In 1962 Steinbeck began acting as friend and mentor to the young writer and naturalist Jack Rudloe, who was trying to establish his own biological supply company, now Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Florida. Their correspondence continued until his death. In 1966, Steinbeck traveled to Tel Aviv to visit the site of Mount Hope, a farm community established in Israel by his grandfather, whose brother, Friedrich Gross Steinbeck, was murdered by Arab marauders in 1858 in what became known as the Outrages at Jaffa. John Steinbeck died in New York City on December 20, 1968, of heart disease and congestive heart failure. He was 66, and had been a lifelong smoker. An autopsy showed nearly complete occlusion of the main coronary arteries. Major works First novel: Cup of Gold 1929Tortilla Flat 1935In Dubious Battle 1936Of Mice and Men 1937The Grapes of Wrath 1939 The pearl 1947A Russian Journal 1948East of Eden 1952Travels with Charley 1962Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters 1969Achievements and honors about his works Tortilla Flat was published in 1935, this book became the first great success to Steinbeck. Because of this, Steinbeck first received the admiration of critics. He won the California Commonwealth Clubs gold medal, the best writer of California Award. Steinbeck won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Of Mice and Men in 1937. This novel made Steinbecks name known as every family in America. The world finally established an important position in the literature for him in an official form. The Grapes of Wrath brought an international fame for him. The Grapes of Wrath as the best novel in1940, the book won the National Book Award andPulitzer Prize for fiction. He ever got Oscar Award for Best Screenplay Award nomination in 1945 because of writing the screenplay for Lifeboat. In addition, in 1961, Steinbeck made a comeback with The Winter of Our Discontent . The book was praised by many critics, especially impressed the Swedish Academy Award Committee members. So it won the world famous award The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. As a novelist and a winner of the Nobel Prize, he left a precious cultural heritage for future generations. No matter whether it is in the American native or around the world, Steinbecks works have been widely concerned. Also his works are well loved by the readers all the time. And he became one member of the National Arts Council in 1966 . His seventeen works, including Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath The Pearl, East of Eden had been put into the Hollywoods screen. His 44 works had been translated into 12 foreign languages until 1968.Point of View by Steinbecks Steinbecks best writing was produced out of outrage at injustices of the societies, and the admiration for the strong spirit of the poor.Besides, his writings reflected his concerns for the plight of the depressed California farmers, migrants, laborers, and the unemployed, making their lives and sorrows very understandable to his readers. His theme was usually that simple human virtues such as kindness and fair treatment were far superior to official hard-heartedness, or the dehumanizing cruelty of exploiters for their own commercial advantage. It is Steinbecks clear expression of sympathy with the disposed and the wretched. So it was accused of being communist-oriented and banned for a long time. And Steinbeck himself is regarded as a “Spokesman of the oppressed”.Writing styles-5 aspectsPoetic Language Steinbeck became a writer and a prose poet at the same time. Or he could be called a poetic writer. Steinbeck developed a symphonic style in his works, All his works have a beautiful melody to show themes for educating and amusing readers. The poetic language of his novels is mainly reflected in three aspects: metaphor, character images and philosophical language.Female Image There were many different images of women in Steinbeck s works. His basic attitudes can be seen on women in these images: Steinbeck both felt full of compassion, but also on hopes for them. From Ma Joad and Rosa we saw their feminist spirits and expectations from Steinbeck. We can say that, Steinbeck expressed the womens ideas and positions at that period.Religious Consciousness With the great depression, the society faced problems of spiritual crisis, numbness, spiritual emptiness. As a writer, Steinbeck had no power to find the solutions for solving problems, he could only used his pen to seek ways for saving peoples faith from the Christian and Oriental religions. Therefore, his works were full of the religious consciousness and religious dialects.Characterization: Many types of characters rather than individuals in Steinbecks works.Symbols: Each work has symbols. In The Grapes of Wrath, there were many symbols, like grapes, the death of Joads dog, etc.The introduce of The Grapes of Wrath The Grapes of Wrathis an Americanrealistnovel written byJohn Steinbeckand published in 1939. Setting during theGreat Depression, the novel focused on the Joads, a poor family oftenant farmersdriven from their Oklahomahome by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in theDust Bowl, t