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.