Table of Contents
Introduction
John Steinbeck a popular and renown author was born in 1927 February 27. He was the son of Salinas who was a mason. This great author in history was born in the state of California, United State of America. Though the author is not that wealthy, but he does live a comfortable life, he did enjoy a rural background where he did work from time to time in a ranch. John enrolled in the university in 1919 where he ended leaving the university before completing his degree in 1925. This great author was in Stanford University.
John did publish his first book which was a novel in 1929 under the title, cup of Gold. He later published a second novel popularly known as The pastures of Heaven which was followed by To a God Unknown. John did published a book which won him a gold medal in the Commonwealth Club’s in 1935, this book was under the title Tortilla Flat which was published in 1935. John did marry his loving wife Carol Henning in the year 1930.
All through his career John did champion the working-class as well as the other marginalized group of people in the society. He did make the stories of these people in the society visible to the global audience. The National John Center do view him, “as the one who championed the course of the forgotten as well as the disenfranchised group of people in the society and at the same time affirming the power that human spirit has.” The center also view his life as one that was rich as well as provocative as he did immortalized Salinas Valley in various of his writing works. It is from Salinas Valley that John did draw his inspiration and end3ed up being a popular author in the world (Stephan, 45).
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Discussion of John’s Work
The author tends to use practical depictions of functioning people in genuine way to incriminate his work politically. When John’s work is examined from the point of working class dimension, we do find themes of wealth functioning class of people greatly discussed in his work. It is the various social observations from his works especially as best demonstrated in his novel, The Grapes of Wrath, which enabled him to earn in 1962 a Nobel Prize.
The novel Grapes of Wrath talks a bout the journey taken by small farmers. They take this journey to flee from Dust Bowl and they move to California where they intend to seek some work. The novel describes Joads who are required to sell their belongings in exchange of gas money. They have to dispose of their pets as well as leave their ancestral land. The author do shows the experience of these poor workers in details, “two men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single pot, the silent, stone-eyed women.” He also shows us how the children are crying in the cold where they have no blankets to cover them so that they can get some warmth. The small farmers/ Joads are very hungry, miserable as well as beaten. They represent the poor working class which is suffering during hard economic times such as great depression. John in his novel clearly and accurately brings to the global community the declining situation of these poor working class people (Susan & Tubach, 34).
John’s social analysis is also manifest in the case of Tom Joad when he does ask for a lift. He does ask for this lift from the trucker and the trucker has a sticker which reads no rider. On the truck, Tom does reply that, “from time to time a person’ll be a good person even though the rich inconsiderate people force him to carry a label.” In this case John tries to bring out the type of class perception that does make the poor working class literature. He tries to demonstrate that the poor will always help each other despite them being given tough instructions by their employers not to help others. Joad is used by the author to show that the poor working man is proud and can not be kicked a round by any rich person.
In addition the author brings continues to demonstrate the poor working struggle in his novel, Of Mice and Men, the author in this case uses the land as a sign of class perception. The author throughout his novel tries to bring the picture of people who are poor and they wake in the morning to work because of their land as well as sleep during the night; it their dream to own their own land that motivates them to work (Shockley& Staples, 23). In this novel we come to see Lennie who is a friend of Goerge and is mentally challenged. He asks night by night to inform him” the stories” Goerge is always dreaming of how one day he will settle in his own homestead and live a good life that he had yearning for. The author demonstrates to the readers that the only way that the poor working class has to liberate them from poverty is through acquiring and working on their parcels of land (Shillinglaw, 97). He brings out the issue of this unachievable goal in order to win the sympathy as well as making visible the various social stigmas that poor working class goes through.
John’s go a step further to demonstrate the type of problems that working people goes through in his novel, Cannery Row. In this novel John continues with his attempts of letting the reader know the type of conditions as well as struggles that the working people goes through in their lives. In this novel the author shows the gap that exist between those who owns god store who will only help the poor/ needy if they will benefit from their acts of charity. The author in this novel demonstrates that even the medical staffs in the area are more concerned about the rich than the poor.
Steinbeck in most of his work is after trying to win sympathy from the reader on the plight of the poor working class in our societies who in most cases even do not have somewhere to rest or anything to call their own.
Conclusion
It seems most of John’s work concentrates on social injustices that are there in our communities. The author can be said to be a pioneer of social justice in the world. He uses his writing talent to advocate for justice and equality in the world. He uses his work to demonstrate how the poor are unfairly treated by the rich. In conclusion, the author through his works can be termed as an advocate of social justice through his literatures. He does bring out the plight of poor members of the society and clearly advocate for measures to be put in place to address the plight of these people ( Barr, Greg, 56).