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, 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
writings 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.
