Salinas, California

born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas California, to the parents of Olive Hamilton and John Ernest Steinbeck. John Steinbeck married three times; he married Carol Henning In 1930, Gwyndolyn Conger 1943, and Elaine Anderson Steinbeck in 1950. John had two sons with Gwyndolyn, and he named them Thomas and John. John Steinbeck wrote a very famous book called The Grapes of Wrath. John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath is one of his best and most popular books ever. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck’s masterpiece, is a realistic interpretation of the struggle of an Oklahoma farm family forced to move to California in order to find employment during the depression. The family’s dilemma represents that of all rural, working-class households in the Midwest and West during an age of increasing mechanization for upper-class. Steinbeck’s female characters, especially, convey his message of working-class unity. The Joads are typical 1930’s tenant farmers, forced from home because “one man on a tractor can take the place of twelve or fourteen families.”(32). Upon reading advertisements of work available in California, the Joads buy an old truck for the journey. The trip quickly kills lifelong Oklahoman Grandpa Joad,…

Steinbeck’s novels are acclaimed for their combination of realistic naturalism and moral optimism—two qualities not commonly found together. Steinbeck portrayed the pain, poverty, and wickedness of the world with unsparing detail while at the same time maintained a belief in the “perfectibility of man.” This optimism pervades Steinbeck’s fiction, leavening even his gloomiest accounts of the Great Depression with a powerful sense of hope. The sweeping California epic “East of Eden” (1952) is…

The facts that were both presented in the biography and the FBI file was how John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902. Both sources stated that he attended college at Stanford University, but did not graduate. John Steinbeck written numerous amounts of books, for example The Winter of Our Discontent. Many of Steinbeck’s books were about United States citizens dealing with economic problems of rural labor, such as The Grapes of Wrath is mainly about poverty of migrant workers. The…

John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas, California and lived through the Great Depression which heavily influenced his writing. The Great Depression was a tragedy that resulted in many Americans being out of work .Though the Great Depression was tragic to many as it ruin many people life .That wasn’t the case for John Steinbeck the Great Depression offered him a lot of things to write about like rural labor, economic problems, and social problems. Living during the Great Depression were…

ranches in California. Similar to most artists, Steinbeck also had multiple reasons for his writing. Most of those reasons were influenced by his own personal opinion and also by those who surrounded him in his life. At a young age, Steinbeck was influenced to write by some of his loved ones, either at home or at school. While exploring through the literature of a book “Le morte d’Arthur” written by Thomas Malory, he was motivated to engage in writing. Along with influential books, Steinbeck's…

The story of Cain and Abel played a major part in the theme of East of Eden. The biblical tale of brotherhood jealousy was used to emulate the relationships between the “C-Characters” and the “A-Characters”. The story of Cain and Abel depicted two brothers fighting for the affection of God, which ends with Abel being murdered by Cain. Steinbeck uses this story to create the narrative that ends up pitting the “C-Characters” against the “A-Characters”, in which the A-Characters are usually on the…

Steinbeck's protagonist expresses both male and female traits, just as the chrysanthemums she cultivates. In fact, the chrysanthemum has a strong and robust appearance though it is a tender and delicate flower. Furthermore, Elisa' frustration is clearly evident from the way the author describes her, "blocked and heavy in her gardening costume," as if she was forced into a confining role that limits her expressiveness. "The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the…

East of Eden, often quoted, discussed, and written about, serves as a cultural icon, and a landmark for American literature. The world Steinbeck builds is most often the center of discussion, with it’s realistic, depthful, characters that tell stories applicable to people from all walks of life from any generation. Often, however, Steinbeck’s underlying narrative seems to go unnoticed. What, at first glance, seems to be a novel full of characters that represent expectations of people in those…

John Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums" is about woman named Elisa Allen who feels discouraged with her current life. Her frustrations come from not having any children and from her husband's failure to see her in a romantic, passionate way. The only way she releases the frustration is by tending to her flower garden where she grows stunning chrysanthemums. Steinbeck uses chrysanthemums as symbols of Elisa’s children and her sexuality. The chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa's children. She…

In East of Eden, John Steinbeck introduces Adam as young, naive boy whose graciousness leads him to be ill-treated by both his father, brother, and future wife. Adam’s refinement and ability to have empathy for others cause him to be physically weaker compared to his brother and to have a mindset that opposes brutality. Adam is unable to see how corrupt his father truly is, unlike his brother Charles, whose naturally dark and violent temperament allows him to see Cyrus’ true form. Similarly,…