BLOG #5

The works of Steinbeck have always been very fluent in connecting the various rungs of the social class ladder. He gives eloquent insights into the lives of the suppressed, choosing to focus on the poorer, working class. One of the most significant topics that surrounds social classification is money. How much does one really need to be happy in life? How does money control people? What are the pros and cons of obtaining large amounts of it? These are themes (in the form of questions) Steinbeck constantly brings up, usually embedded in his complex yet pragmatic style.
There is an article from the Literature Resource Center Database in which the author criticizes “Steinbeck's evident narrational detachment”. This article is full of false claims. One of Steinbeck’s greatest strengths is his experience with the groups of people he writes about—mainly the suppressed as explained above. Steinbeck wasn’t wealthy during in his younger years. He held many jobs and had to drop out of College periodically to earn enough money to attend.
Sources such as the article described above will be picked apart, and the falsehood of its contents will be revealed. To secure a foundation of historical and biblical facts, several other articles will be assessed, as well as a biography by Jay Parini (“John Steinbeck: a biography”). Gathered information will be used in rebuttal.

List of Articles:
Distky, John. "John Steinbeck: An Overview." GALE. 2006. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .
Welcome to The National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .

Blog #4

John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902. He grew up not far from Monterey in the town of Salinas, California. As a child, his mother helped him develop a passion for reading books. Some of his favorite titles from his early times were Milton's Paradise Lost, and Le Morte d'Arthur. He attended Salinas high school and during his free time (which he had little of because we was working so many jobs) he would explore the surrounding Monterey Bay region. This region would become the setting in many of his future fiction novels.
A huge influence on Steinbeck’s writing was his experience with common, low-paying work. Steinbeck held an incredible amount of different kind of jobs as he struggled to become a writer. To pay for his college financial costs, he would hold many jobs and even drop out for whole quarters in order to earn enough money. At Stanford he studied marine biology but never obtained a degree. His passion had always been writing and a writer is what he strived to be. After a short while living in New York, he returned back to California to pursue his writing career more seriously. He held many odd jobs at this time, such as fruit picking, printing apprentice, surveyor, and estate caretaker.
Steinbeck lived through all of the Great Depression, a historical event that surely had great impact upon his writing. One of his most famous works, Grapes of Wrath, is a novel that takes place during the depression. It is about a farming family that is forced to leave their land that has been destroyed by the dust bowl (such families were called Okies). The tale follows their trail as they move to California in search of a better life. Many of Steinbeck’s works explore the topic of wealth. Tortilla Flat, The Pearl, and Cannery Row are three examples that thoroughly explore the topic of wealth.
Steinbeck was often a troubled man. His fluency with the hardships of mankind and the extreme emotions in life allowed him to write amazing literature but often took its toll. Through the course of his lifetime, Steinbeck married three women and divorced two of them. Articles describe his marriage situation as “unhappy”, but perhaps he was a man who could never settle down. Many of his stories are filled with adventures of free-willed men and women. These stories are the best way a reader can reflect upon Steinbeck, because they ultimately reflect the eyes and perspective of John Steinbeck himself.
John Steinbeck died on December 20, 1968. His was cremated, and a family urn containing his ashes resides at the Salinas Cemetery in California.

BLOG #3

In contrast to Tortilla Flat, Steinbeck’s The Pearl displays the dangers of wealth. In Tortilla Flat, the characters had very little money, yet they lived their lives full of epic, emotional “knights of the round table” tales. They are happy and content. In The Pearl, quite the opposite occurs. The protagonist is an unwealthy, South American native who has lived a peaceful life. That is, until he acquires a large pearl of enormous value. As soon as he breaks open the clam and pulls out the pearl, his perspective of the world distorts and his life plummets toward chaos.
Throughout The Pearl, Kino’s thoughts and feelings are conveyed by a series of ceaseless “songs” that seem to mold to whatever situation is at hand. Inside his house, Kino and his Wife notice a scorpion, edging itself down the rope tied to a hammock where their newborn baby is sleeping. Kino becomes very tense and begins to move slowly toward the poisonous insect. “In [Kino’s] mind a new song had come, the Song of Evil, the music of the enemy, of any foe of the family, a savage, secret, dangerous melody, and underneath, the song of the Family cried plaintively” (6). Steinbeck includes this unique trait so the readers can better understand the natives who are constantly suppressed by the rich white people around them. It displays the deepness and intelligence of their culture.
The rift between the two races (natives and whites) is clearly depicted when Kino and his wife rush to the white doctor. A scorpion has just stung their newborn baby, and they are in desperate need of medical skill. Yet when their plea is conveyed, the doctor simply replies, “Have I nothing better to do than cure insect bites for ‘little Indians’? I am a doctor, not a veterinary” (13). Veterinaries tend to animals, not humans. By saying this, the doctor is implying that Kino and his Kin are no more to him than the wild pigs that roam around Kino’s beach in search of food.
Once Kino acquires the Pearl, tension begins to build up. Obtaining so much wealth so quickly, Kino is unprepared for the consequences. Suddenly, he is on everybody’s radar. “Every man suddenly became related to Kino’s pearl, and Kino’s pearl went into dreams, the speculations, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts, the hungers, of everyone, and only on person stood in the way and that was Kino, so that he became curiously every man’s enemy” (23). Much like when a friend acquires a popular new device such as a cell phone and others begin to imagine themselves with the phone, they momentarily become the person with the phone and thus feel the need to acquire it was well. As everybody in the town dreams what they would do with the pearl’s wealth, they somehow conclude it is rightfully theirs. Suddenly, Kino is everybody’s enemy. Unlike the amigos of Tortilla Flat, he can now be exploited. The pearl has brought along the dangers of wealth. Even though Kino can hear the warning song of evil, he chooses to pursue a dream full of riches and high hopes.
To enhance the surge of triumph at acquiring the pearl, Steinbeck inserts a three paragraphs, spaced pages apart. Each one describes the condition of Kino’s knuckles. In the first one, Kino strikes the gate of the Doctors house in anger after being denied medical attention to his baby. “He looked down in wonder at his split knuckles and at the blood that flowed down between his fingers” (13). Then he proceeds to go diving and obtain the pearl. In his canoe, Kino holds the pearl in his injured hand. “…it was the hand he had smashed against the doctor’s gate, and the torn flesh of the knuckles was turned grayish white by the sea water” (20) As sea-salt helps heal wounds, the pearl helps to solve Kino’s problem. Now he has all the money in the world to pay the doctor. The third paragraph is inserted while Kino is dreaming up all the items he could purchase and all the future possibilities for his baby son. “Kino looked down at his closed hand and the knuckles were scabbed over and tight where he had struck the gate” 26. It seems that Kino’s life is increasingly becoming better. Yet scabs often leave scars, and the amount of hope surging through Kino’s mind eventually crushes him.
Eventually Kino begins to feel the danger of the pearl. Standing outside his hut on the beach, “he felt alone and unprotected, and scraping crickets and shrilling tree frogs and croaking toads seemed to be carrying the melody of evil” (28). These sounds used to be sounds from the song of the Family. Everyday, pleasant sounds that made him feel secure and content. Now they mock him. He is no longer the simple native. He is now unimaginably rich, equal to the white men who live in big houses in the town. Kino is torn between his normal life he has been living for years, and his future life, which now holds immense, unstable potential.

Blog #2

In Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat (Note: This blogging site does not have the ability to support underlined text for reasons I cannot even begin to imagine), the main characters live a life unaffected by the social aspects of the higher class. Since they have no money, they do not have to worry about financial troubles. In no way can they be exploited, because there is nothing they have of any significant value.

The first time Danny walks into the house he inherits, Pilon observes Danny’s stressful look. “Pilon noticed that the worry of property was settling on Danny’s face. No more in life would that face be free of care. No more would Danny break windows now that he had windows of his own to break” (13). Danny is free no more. His wild, homeless youth is gone with the ownership of a house. Danny now feels the “responsibilities” of wealth and he resents it. This passage sets up the over lying plot of the book. Throughout the rest of the novel he slowly becomes more and more depressed as the responsibilities of owning a house cuts down upon his mental health.

“Although no one had mentioned it, each of the four knew they were all going to live in Danny’s house. Pilon sighed with pleasure. Gone was the worry of the rent; gone the responsibility of owing money” (55). This passage takes place the morning after one of the two houses burns down. The loss of a house is a huge catastrophe to most people, yet Danny and his friends feel good about it. Danny, the host, now is free from demanding rent, and his friends are now free from worrying about it (they would never be able to pay it anyways).

At one point in the novel the friends decide to aid a poverty stricken, curious man people call “the Pirate”. They notice that the Pirate collects a few quarters every day by selling chopped kindle but never spends it. Concluding that there must be a large hoard of money kept somewhere, they decide to acquire it. Pilon explains, “[The Pirate’s] clothes are thin and ragged. And because his brain is not a good one, he hides his money” (61). At first glance, it seems as if Pilon is trying to justify a reason to steal the Pirate’s money. However, the friends ultimately help the Pirate buy a gold statue for a church, thus proving that money is no real concern to them and friendship is of the greatest importance.

When one of Danny’s neighbors couldn’t feed her children, Danny and his friends, without thinking twice, rushed to aid her. They steal a great deal of food to give to her. “Now food began to accumulate in the house of Teresina. Boxes of lettuce lay on her porch, spoiled mackerel filled the neighborhood with a strong odor. And still the flame of charity burned in the friends” (151). The friends are risking their freedom by stealing food, but they do not even think about the consequences. Steinbeck again demonstrates how Danny and his friends do not have to worry about such matters because they are untouched by the social system. The well being of their friends is their greatest concern.

After Danny dies at the end of the novel, the friends huddle together in the house to sing songs in remembrance of their beloved friend. Pilon carelessly drops a match: (Note: this blogging site would not allow me to properly indent the quotation.)

The little burning stick landed on an old newspaper against the wall. Each man started up to stamp it out; and each man was struck with a celestial thought, and settled back. They found one another’s eyes and smiled the wise smiles of the deathless and hopeless ones. In reverie they watched the flame flicker and nearly die, and sprout to life again…and the men smiled on as the paper burned and the dry wooden wall caught (206).

Steinbeck carefully chooses the words “deathless” and “hopeless” to describe the friends as they allow Danny’s house to burn. They have no concern of death nor do they have any hope. There is nothing they ought to hope for. They are free men by heart, untouched by the American social system that constantly pushes people to obtain wealth and be “successful” in life. In that moment when they back away from the fire and let it burn, they realize they cannot live in Danny’s house any longer. Danny owned the house along with its responsibilities. When he died, his friends inherited the house and its responsibilities—the same responsibilities that drove Danny into deep depression. They wisely avoid the same fate by allowing the house to burn.