John Steinbeck

By: Taylor Petty

Steinbeck’s Background• John Steinbeck was born on February

27, 1902 in Salinas, CA• His father was a country treasurer • His mother was a teacher• He had two older sisters and a

younger one

More of Steinbeck’s Background• He was married to Carol Henning and

later to Gwyndolyn Conger • He had two sons with Conger• His third wife was Elaine Anderson

whom he stayed with until his death

Educational Background• He graduated from the Salinas High

School, Salinas in 1919. He attended Stanford University intermittently from 1919 to 1925 but he never earned a degree.

Major Works• Steinbeck's best-known works are:• East of Eden• Of Mice and Men • ***The Grapes of Wrath***

The Grapes Of Wrath• The novel tells the story of the Joads, a

poor Oklahoma farming family, who migrate to California in search of a better life during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Steinbeck effectively demonstrated how the struggles of one family mirrored the hardship of the entire nation. Through the inspiration of the labor organizer Jim Casy, the Joads learn that the poor must work together in order to survive.

• http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/video/ANhypertext_steinbeck.html?playertype=windowsmedia;speed=320;mediatype=video;media

Collapsed Plot• Collapsed plot is a modernist

technique that instead of stating what they mean, the author uses symbols and images so the reader must identify the symbols and what they mean.

“The Turtle” from The Grapes of Wrath

• And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. His front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddly-wink, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway. The truck went back to its course along the right side. Lying on its back, the turtle was tight in its shell for a long time. But at last its legs waved in the air, reaching for something to pull it over. Its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and plopped upright. The wild oat head fell out and three of the spearhead seeds stuck in the ground. And as the turtle crawled on down the embankment , its shell dragged dirt over the seeds.

Example• John Steinbeck uses collapsed plot in The

Turtle from The Grapes of Wrath. In this short story, the turtle gets hit by a truck and must struggle to get back up and get on his way again. In this situation, the truck represents the Great Depression and the turtle represents the human. After the truck hits the turtle, the turtle’s struggle to get going again is like the human struggle to get back to their old way of life. (pg.768)

Accomplishments• He won the Pulitzer Prize and the

National Book Award with “The Turtle”

• He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

John Steinbeck Museum• The museum is located in Juan Cruz,

Mexico

Influences on John Steinbeck

• John Steinbeck’s greatest influence were the social and economic issues of rural America.

• Ed Ricketts also had a strong influence on Steinbeck’s writing.

Ed Ricketts

How Did He Influence Other Writers?

• He influenced later with his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception

Historical Background • John Steinbeck lived between 1902

and 1968• He lived in a small town in Salinas,

California • He lived through the Great

Depression

Death• John Steinbeck died of heart failure

on 20 December 1968, he was 66 years old and a life long smoker. On 4 March 1969, his ashes were buried in the Garden of Memories cemetery in Salinas in the Hamilton Family plot.

Questions:1.) What influenced John Steinbeck’s

writing?2.) Which of his works is he best

known for?3.) What did Steinbeck win the Nobel

Prize for?4.)What other prizes did he win?5.) How did Steinbeck influence later

writers?

references

• www.wikipedia.com• www.google.com• http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/l

aureates/1962/steinbeck-bio.html• http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/johnstei.htm• http://www.steinbeck.org/