Analysis Of John Steinbeck's To A God Unknown

Final Paper John Steinbeck reflects his own life in many of his short stories and novels. If it is not his own experiences, then it is how he feels towards a subject. Steinbeck was a very talented writer. He tells us about his life through his writing. In his “early adolescence he showed a strong interest in writing” (National). Steinbeck wrote for his high school newspaper. After high school, John enrolled at Stanford, where he increased his writing skills. Although he attended Stanford for five years, he did not receive a degree. He left Stanford in 1925 and went to live in New York, but living in New York did not last long. He later moved to California and finished his first novel Cup of Gold (National). He uses the world problems as muse …show more content…
To A God Unknown reflects on his past, “the stories in Pastures of Heaven are all set in an around the Salinas Valley, while the setting for To A God Unknown was inspired by the San Antonio Valley, near King City, where Steinbeck spent some time as a teenager” (National). Many of his novels reflected where he lived. His novel “The Red Pony incorporates events and imagery that Steinbeck witnessed as a boy” (National). He used Salinas Valley in his novels because he was “fascinated and familiar with the culture and geography of the Salinas Valley, and develops the clear, sweeping style that characterizes his best fiction” (National). His life experiences also reflect through his novels. Steinbeck writes about things that he witnessed or things that he lived through, “in 1935, Steinbeck enjoyed his first critical and commercial success with Tortilla Flat, chronicling the adventures of a group of friends modeled after stories Steinbeck had heard of the paisanos in Monterey” (National). Working on a ranch during his younger days inspired the setting of his short story “The Chrysanthemums.” He used issues of agricultural labor rights and the rising influx of migrant workers in California as inspiration is his …show more content…
This novel was John’s first experiment, “the novella was highly successful, and Steinbeck 's 1962 Nobel Prize citation referred to the work as a “little masterpiece” (American). He aimed to have Of Mice and Men represent the universal longings for a home. Steinbeck wrote to his agent about this novel, “the earth longings of a Lennie who was not to represent insanity at all but the inarticulate and powerful yearning of all men” (American). In Of Mice and Men, Lennie is portrayed as a mentally slow person and throughout the novel, Steinbeck writes about the hardships Lennie goes through. He also makes it clear how people looked at