John Steinbeck has contributed some very great works to
literature. Even though certain components of Steinbeck's writing fit
characteristics of many literary movements, he fits best with the Modernism movement.
This movement involves a rejection of tradition and a hostile attitude toward
the immediate past (Thetalon) . John Steinbeck has
been characterized as having been influenced by the likes of Charles Darwin,
the naturalist, author of The Origin of Species, and champion of the theory of
evolution (USHistory) . Instead of
Romanticism and its highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment
of its subjects, Naturalism is the outgrowth of Realism, a prominent literary
movement of the late 19th-century (USHistory) . One of the major
characteristics of Modernism is the movement away from Romanticism and
Naturalism (Thetalon) . Steinbeck seems to combine realism with a
little bit of romanticism that finds advantage in the poor, which leads to my
next point.
Steinbeck was “down and dirty with the common
man (USHistory) .” This is shown quite
a bit in two of his very popular works, Of
Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.
Of Mice and Men is about two men who
are lonely, trying to find their way and survive during The Great Depression. The Grapes of Wrath is about a family after
their small family farm collapses due to the drought and The Great Depression. Steinbeck's
interest in the plight of farmers in the face of rapidly encroaching
agribusiness and his sympathy for union organizers became important themes in
the novel, along with the struggles of the average person against big business (eNotes) . To Steinbeck,
modern life is often the enemy, in which characters discover that they are lost
in a world they never succeeded in.
Steinbeck's writing stands against the traditional principles of
realism, upholding his place in history as a modernist.
Works Cited
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck- Introduction. Ed. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. 2003.
Janet Witalec Project Editor. Vol. 135. Gale Cengage. 24 April 2012.
<http://www.enotes.com/grapes-of-wrath-criticism/grapes-wrath-john-steinbeck>.
Thetalon.
n.d. 20 April 2012. <http://thetalon.org/MISC/unit_5_study.html>.
USHistory.
n.d. 20 April 2012. <http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3905.html>.
French Poetry
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