Steinbeck Getting Into Charac
John Ernst Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, to a middle-class family in Salinas, California (Swisher 13). Although he personally did not have to suffer through hunger or any major atrocities such as the Dust Bowl era, he was old enough at the time to understand what was happening. As one historian says, "Steinbeck worked as a laborer. He worked for a sugar-beet company, Spreckels sugar, sometimes laboring with migrants in the harvest field and living with them in the bunkhouse," (Swisher 15). Because of this, Steinbeck had first-hand experience working with migrants before even beginning to think about writing a novel such as The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck worked at these jobs in order to work on his style of writing (Swisher 15). "He wanted a method to express the unique qualities he met on the streets and people from his past," (Swisher 15). Steinbeck, according to Swisher, "struggled with the place of humans as individuals and how they were forced to comply with a powerful social order" (Swisher 15). Through many friends' ideas and criticisms, Steinbeck's writing style changed and developed into a more naturalistic type style. Eventually, he became interested in the theme of social protest (Swisher 15).
John Steinbeck chose to use the Joad family to make the story more credible among his readers. Howarth says, "The Joads were both individual and universal; they gave the story credibility rather than authenticity," (Howarth 83). Readers during the time the book came out were not necessarily all financially secured. Because of this, the Joad family became real and believable among those who read the book. For those who were not affected by the Dust Bowl era, the novel was informative. Roberts says, "Even though the American people knew about these people, they did not understand the nature of the entire situation," (Roberts 7). Steinbeck wanted his readers to fully identify with the Joad family. He wanted their hearts to open up to not only this one family, but the hundreds of others who were actually suffering through this horrible period at the time. Roberts says, "Steinbeck once said that the plight of the migrants was something impersonal and distant," (Roberts 7). Because of this, Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath as a way to make it more personal. a brief essay about labor migrants in The Nation (September 13, 1936)," (Howarth 78). So as it is stated, Steinbeck wrote more than just The Grapes of Wrath through his travels through migrant camps.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2076
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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