Born into a middle class family in 1902 in Salinas, California, John Steinbeck lived and struggled to work through the Great Depression and many of his books highlight the hardships of farmers and laborers during the worst of the depression. When he was 17, Steinbeck enrolled in Stanford University and spent six years there taking courses that interested him instead of pursuing an actual degrees. Here he was influenced by Charles Darwin and his ideas on evolution like many future writers of this time. He dropped out of Stanford in 1925 and moved to New York to pursue becoming a writer and to improve his freelance writing skills, but after being unsuccessful in finding a publisher, Steinbeck was compelled to return to California.
In 1929, Steinbeck wrote his first book, Cup of Gold, which was a loose telling of the life of privateer Henry Morgan and received little public notice. Following his marriage to Carol Henning the next year, Steinbeck attended several radical political rallies that influenced many of his works including his first critical success Tortilla Flat which won the California Commonwealth Club Gold Medal and told the story of young men in Monterey engaging in heroic adventures in their attempt to find work during the depression.
Steinbeck found his niche writing "California novels" and "Dustbowl fiction", meaning he told stories of common people during the depression in order to reflect his social consciousness of the struggles of rural workers. These works were examples of literary naturalism and realism which were new genres of literature written by authors influenced by Darwin and many other scientists of the time. This literary movement focused on writing about subjects as they really are instead of the romanticism of the twenties and Steinbeck was at the head of the movement following his publishing of Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. 
The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the uproar over his interpretation of the inhumane living conditions among migrating "Okies" along the highway leading to the Promised Land during the worst of the depression was so vast that it caught the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt. As an unrelenting human rights activist, Eleanor challenged Congress to fix the labor laws and standards for migrant camp conditions in order to give these people better opportunities and better quality of lives.
Steinbeck had a great effect on the moral of the public during the depression as the majority of the country read his books and sought inspiration and hope from them. Not only did he improve the low spirits of the people, but he also was able to change laws with his books because of the awareness they raised.
sources: http://www.famousauthors.org/john-steinbeck
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3905.html
This is a great post. I liked it because it allows me to understand one more influence on society during the depression. As a well known author, he helped shape morals in society. Also having lived through the war, he provided with great knowledge on society back then as well. Aside from all of that, this was just a nice change from posts about the depression itself. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to hear about the influence that The Grapes of Wrath had on the real life situations that it was based off of. I have always loved Steinbeck's writing because of the fact that I personally have been to many of the places that he writes about. I especially appreciate how he was able to capture the reality of the Great Depression and what many Americans were going through to give us even 50 years later a clear depiction of that time based off more than just historical facts.
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