John Steinbeck was greatly influenced as a writer by one of his best friends, Ed Ricketts. Ed Rickets and Steinbeck frequently went traveling together, to study marine animals and collect biological samples. Many of Steinbeck's characters seem to be based on Ricketts, for example Slim from Of Mice and Men seems to have a deeper understanding of the world than any of the other characters. Doc from Cannery Row has a similar wisdom and way of going about things. There are almost always multiple main characters, possibly because Steinbeck believed that looking at a single person will never render a complete picture of who they are, and so it is necessary to look at how others affect them. This may also be part of the reason that his descriptions of setting and characters are so dominating.
Cannery Row and Of Mice and Men both have a set of characters that are very similar. For example, Mac and The Boys and George and Lennie are always on the move, both groups having been hit hard by the Great Depression. Mac and the boys do not really have any specific hopes or goals, but George and Lennie are in a way kept alive and happy by their hopes and dreams. Characters are also quite often caricatures, displaying their flaws and feelings.
Steinbeck's writing style is very poetic, especially in his descriptions of settings. He dedicates chapters exclusively to descriptions. Characters all have their own way of speaking, each using a different dialect/slang.
I will be using many sources on the literary influences of Ed Ricketts on Steinbeck, including:
http://www.steinbeck.org/Bio.html
http://www.aclibrary.org/research/articlesDataBases/default.asp?topic=ArticlesDataBases&cat=BooksAuthorsLiteraryCriticism
www.beyondtheoutershores.com
A Journey into Steinbeck's California by Susan Shillinglaw
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Outside Reading Blog #4
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He lived in a small farming town, which may have been where much of his inspiration for Of Mice and Men came from. In 1919, Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School and attended Stanford University, but he did not get a degree. He traveled to New York City and held odd jobs while pursuing his dream of becoming a writer. While trying to get his works published he worked as a tour guide and caretaker at a fish hatchery in Tahoe City. "Steinbeck grew up in California's Salinas Valley, a culturally diverse place with a rich migratory and immigrant history. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place"(Wikipedia). He spent much of the Great Depression in a cottage on the Monterey Peninsula in Pacific Grove, California.
In 1940 Steinbeck traveled around the Gulf of California collecting biological specimens with his friend, Ed Ricketts, a biologist. It was here that Steinbeck collected much of the material for his novels "Tortilla Flats" and "Cannery Row". In 1948, Steinbeck toured the Soviet Union with photographer Robert Capa. They visited Moscow, Tvilisi, Kiev, Stalingrad and Batumi. His book about their experiences, A Russian Journal, was illustrated with Capa's photos. John Steinbeck died at the age of 66 in New York City on December 20, 1968 of heart disease and congestive heart failure. He had been a life-long smoker.
In 1940 Steinbeck traveled around the Gulf of California collecting biological specimens with his friend, Ed Ricketts, a biologist. It was here that Steinbeck collected much of the material for his novels "Tortilla Flats" and "Cannery Row". In 1948, Steinbeck toured the Soviet Union with photographer Robert Capa. They visited Moscow, Tvilisi, Kiev, Stalingrad and Batumi. His book about their experiences, A Russian Journal, was illustrated with Capa's photos. John Steinbeck died at the age of 66 in New York City on December 20, 1968 of heart disease and congestive heart failure. He had been a life-long smoker.
Because most of his stories take place in Salinas, Monterey and the San Joaquin Valley, they are sometimes referred to as Steinbeck country. He had very wide range of interests, such as marine biology, politics, religion, history and mythology, as he shows in many of his novels.
Steinbeck's description of Monterey in Cannery Row was very accurate many things still exist. Ed Ricketts' laboratory survives (though it is not yet open to the public), and at the corner is the store which once belonged to Lee Chong. The adjacent vacant lot is still frequented by the hobos of Cannery Row.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Outside Reading Project Blog #3
1) "Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses" (1).
Steinbeck uses an incredible amount of detail in his descriptions of setting. He uses very flowery language and situates the scenes very precisely. In Of Mice and Men he uses a lot of description as well, always taking care to capture the feeling and tone of the place. Throughout Cannery Row he relies very heavily on setting and descriptions to tell the story.
2) "When you collect marine animals there are certain flat worms so delicate that they are almost impossible to capture whole, for they break and tatter under the touch. You must let them ooze and crawl of their own will onto a knife blade and then lift them gently into your bottle of sea water. And perhaps that might be the way to write this book -- to open the page and to let the stories crawl in by themselves"(3).
Cannery Row is a story about the area in Monterey where they can sardines and various other fish. There is no real story line; it is more of a series of events. Steinbeck vaguely follows the adventures of a gang of homeless men, "Mack and the boys", along with many other characters. The fact that there is no central theme or main character, it would not be a good story had he written it more like Of Mice and Men. In Of Mice and Men, Lennie and George are constantly busy and are obviously the main characters. Most of the characters in Cannery Row are equally important, and their stories intertwine in a way that separating any of them would cause the story to lose all meaning, like how the worm breaks up if you try to force it onto the blade.
3) " What can it profit a man to gain the whole world and to come to his property with a gastric ulcer, a blown prostate, and bifocals? Mack and the boys avoid the trap, walk around the poison, step over the noose while a generation of trapped, poisoned, and trussed-up men scream at them and call them no-goods, come-to-bad-ends, blots-on-the-town, thieves, rascals and bums"(14).
Mack and the boys are the rebels in the book. They are the ones that sit around all day, and really have the best and most relaxing life of all. In Of Mice and Men, everyone works incredibly hard just to earn a small amount of money to live well for the rest of their lives. For example, Candy, the old man still working at the ranch, ruins his life because of all his hard work trying to better his life. Mack and the boys try to beat the system, so instead of working hard they just laze around all day and let the good come to them. Somehow they get a free house from Lee Chong the grocer, and sometimes they make some money collecting specimens for the town biologist, Doc, and for the rest they just have as much fun as they can in life.
4) "Now and then as he watched them he saw them take out a pint of Old Tennis Shoes and wiping the neck of the bottle on a sleeve, raise the pint one after another. And William began to wish he could join that good group"(21).
William was the "watchman" of Dora's brothel, and he desperately wanted to experience a different kind of life. He could see Mack and the boys relaxing and talking about nothing really important from the window of where he worked, and it became something of a fantasy to go chill with them. One day he goes outside to sit on the pipe with them, but they get quiet and stop talking. This is so discouraging to William that he loses the will to live, and he stabs himself in the heart with an icepick. The effects on people when they do not accomplish a dream or a goal in both Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row are always extreme, for example when Lennie screws up his and George's dream, it ends up in his tragic death. It may be seemingly very insignificant dreams, but peoples hopes are the only things that keep them going in difficult times.
5) "There were frogs there all right, thousands of them. Their voices beat the night, they boomed and barked and croaked and rattled. They sang to the stars, to the waning moon, to the waving grasses. They bellowed love songs and challenges" (98).
Mack and the boys decide one day that Doc, the biologist, is such a nice guy that they should throw him a party. However, they don't have any money or alcohol, so they go ask Doc what they can do to make money. He tells them that he will pay them for collecting frogs, so they go to a river a little north from Monterey and here they find a pond with thousands of frogs. Much of the book really just follows Mack and the boys in their adventures and attempts to throw Doc a successful party. The croaking frogs seem to be singing about the suffering of all the people in Of Mice and Men and in Cannery Row and really in society.
Steinbeck uses an incredible amount of detail in his descriptions of setting. He uses very flowery language and situates the scenes very precisely. In Of Mice and Men he uses a lot of description as well, always taking care to capture the feeling and tone of the place. Throughout Cannery Row he relies very heavily on setting and descriptions to tell the story.
2) "When you collect marine animals there are certain flat worms so delicate that they are almost impossible to capture whole, for they break and tatter under the touch. You must let them ooze and crawl of their own will onto a knife blade and then lift them gently into your bottle of sea water. And perhaps that might be the way to write this book -- to open the page and to let the stories crawl in by themselves"(3).
Cannery Row is a story about the area in Monterey where they can sardines and various other fish. There is no real story line; it is more of a series of events. Steinbeck vaguely follows the adventures of a gang of homeless men, "Mack and the boys", along with many other characters. The fact that there is no central theme or main character, it would not be a good story had he written it more like Of Mice and Men. In Of Mice and Men, Lennie and George are constantly busy and are obviously the main characters. Most of the characters in Cannery Row are equally important, and their stories intertwine in a way that separating any of them would cause the story to lose all meaning, like how the worm breaks up if you try to force it onto the blade.
3) " What can it profit a man to gain the whole world and to come to his property with a gastric ulcer, a blown prostate, and bifocals? Mack and the boys avoid the trap, walk around the poison, step over the noose while a generation of trapped, poisoned, and trussed-up men scream at them and call them no-goods, come-to-bad-ends, blots-on-the-town, thieves, rascals and bums"(14).
Mack and the boys are the rebels in the book. They are the ones that sit around all day, and really have the best and most relaxing life of all. In Of Mice and Men, everyone works incredibly hard just to earn a small amount of money to live well for the rest of their lives. For example, Candy, the old man still working at the ranch, ruins his life because of all his hard work trying to better his life. Mack and the boys try to beat the system, so instead of working hard they just laze around all day and let the good come to them. Somehow they get a free house from Lee Chong the grocer, and sometimes they make some money collecting specimens for the town biologist, Doc, and for the rest they just have as much fun as they can in life.
4) "Now and then as he watched them he saw them take out a pint of Old Tennis Shoes and wiping the neck of the bottle on a sleeve, raise the pint one after another. And William began to wish he could join that good group"(21).
William was the "watchman" of Dora's brothel, and he desperately wanted to experience a different kind of life. He could see Mack and the boys relaxing and talking about nothing really important from the window of where he worked, and it became something of a fantasy to go chill with them. One day he goes outside to sit on the pipe with them, but they get quiet and stop talking. This is so discouraging to William that he loses the will to live, and he stabs himself in the heart with an icepick. The effects on people when they do not accomplish a dream or a goal in both Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row are always extreme, for example when Lennie screws up his and George's dream, it ends up in his tragic death. It may be seemingly very insignificant dreams, but peoples hopes are the only things that keep them going in difficult times.
5) "There were frogs there all right, thousands of them. Their voices beat the night, they boomed and barked and croaked and rattled. They sang to the stars, to the waning moon, to the waving grasses. They bellowed love songs and challenges" (98).
Mack and the boys decide one day that Doc, the biologist, is such a nice guy that they should throw him a party. However, they don't have any money or alcohol, so they go ask Doc what they can do to make money. He tells them that he will pay them for collecting frogs, so they go to a river a little north from Monterey and here they find a pond with thousands of frogs. Much of the book really just follows Mack and the boys in their adventures and attempts to throw Doc a successful party. The croaking frogs seem to be singing about the suffering of all the people in Of Mice and Men and in Cannery Row and really in society.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Outside Reading Project Blog #2
1) "'Tha’s good,' he said. 'You drink some, George. You take a good big drink.' He smiled happily". (3, Mice and Men).
These are Lennie's first words in the book. He and George arrive at a clearing with a pond, and Without thinking about hygiene or etiquette, Lennie just plunges his whole head, hat and all into the pond and takes a huge drink. He wants to share his pure pleasure with his friend George, a lot like an innocent child would. His first thought is to share the good feeling with a friend. George inspects the water before drinking it, making sure that it isn't too scummy or anything. He is a lot more cautious than Lennie. Lennie's innocence not only foreshadows his personality, it is also how Lennie feels about his friendship with George. Lennie is somewhat childish and simple, but he has a pure heart.
Lennie and George have an interesting relationship. Lennie always loses them their jobs and gets them in trouble, but George manages to get them safe everytime. George is kind of held back by Lennie, because he can never hold a job. On the other hand, if George was on his own, he would spend all his money and never be able to fulfill his dreams of buying his own farm. In a way Lennie keeps him in line and steadily working toward a goal. Lennie is in a way a symbol of hope for George.
3) "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. [. . .] With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us"(13-14, Mice and Men).
Near the end of section one when George and Lennie camp in the small clearing, George gets very impatient with Lennie and starts yelling at him. He then sees that he hurt Lennie, and he comforts him by assuring him that they have each other and that is the reason that they have a future. Steinbeck idealizes friendships, saying that they are the best way to overcome loneliness and problems. Later in the novel we learn that most of the other characters are very lonely because they have no real friends like George and Lennie. Steinbeck proves that their friendship is so rare when Candy asks if they are still going to buy the farm without Lennie after his tragic death, instead of helping George deal with the loss. Only Slim understands how painful George's loss must be.
4) In "Of Mice and Men" most of the characters share a dream of one day having their own farm: "All kin's a vegetables in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can sell a few eggs or something, or some milk. We'd jus' live there. We'd belong there. There wouldn't be no more runnin' round the country and gettin' fed by a Jap cook. No, sir, we'd have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no bunk house" (57, Mice and Men). George's explanation of the dream sparks candy's interest, and he later asks if he can pitch in his savings and live with George and Lennie. The dream comes much closer to reality at this point. They have very modest hopes for the future, having been hit the hardest by the Great Depression.
5) "Slim said, 'You hadda, George. I swear you hadda. Come on with me.' He led George into the entrance of the trail and up toward the highway.
Curley and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, 'Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?'"(107, Mice and Men)
At the end of the story, after Lennie kills Curley's wife, he runs down to the place where he and George first camped. It is here that George finds Lennie and kills him. When the rest of the men finally find George, they are all happy that he is dead. To them Lennie and George's friendship has absolutely no meaning. Slim is the only one that realizes how significant it is, and he comforts George. The other men have mostly had lonely lives and are completely oblivious to those emotions. Steinbeck is criticizing how compassion and sympathy are being lost by society, that many people are unable to recognize friendships because of their lack of friendships.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Outside Reading Project Blog #1
The author that I chose for the outside reading project is John Steinbeck, writer of (among others) "Of Mice and Men" and "Cannery Row". "Of Mice and Men" is the story of two ranch workers, George Milton and Lennie Small trying to achieve their dreams. George is trying to work for independence, to save enough money to be able to buy a small ranch of his own. Lennie has an insatiable love for soft things, so he is working to help George buy the ranch so that they can breed rabbits. Just when it seems that the dream of owning a ranch could become a reality, Lennie takes his love for soft things too far and accidentally kills the ranch owner's son's wife. It is George's duty to take care of Lennie, but after the accident he is no longer able to protect Lennie from the mob so he shoots him to spare him the pain. The story is very much about how the Great Depression kept people down. Just when they seem to have a way out everything collapses.
Another theme in the novel is that shortcomings and handicap's somehow have a way to negate strengths. For example, Lennie is much stronger than any of the other ranch hands, but he is mentally somewhat disabled. It is his mental handicap together with his physical strength that lead to his unfortunate death.
Curley's wife has no name in the book, and has absolutely no personality other than that she is seductive and is not trustworthy. In this way she is a only a symbol for an object of desire, and a supplement to the shortcomings of many men.
The story takes place on a ranch near Soledad, California. Most of the characters have a similar southern way of speaking. Everyone in the book has a character-defining way of talking, for example Curley has a violent edge to the things he says. Everything that Lennie says is very simple and generally involves recurring ideas. The things that Lennie says almost always involve rabbits and "living off the fatta' the lan'".
Another theme in the novel is that shortcomings and handicap's somehow have a way to negate strengths. For example, Lennie is much stronger than any of the other ranch hands, but he is mentally somewhat disabled. It is his mental handicap together with his physical strength that lead to his unfortunate death.
Curley's wife has no name in the book, and has absolutely no personality other than that she is seductive and is not trustworthy. In this way she is a only a symbol for an object of desire, and a supplement to the shortcomings of many men.
The story takes place on a ranch near Soledad, California. Most of the characters have a similar southern way of speaking. Everyone in the book has a character-defining way of talking, for example Curley has a violent edge to the things he says. Everything that Lennie says is very simple and generally involves recurring ideas. The things that Lennie says almost always involve rabbits and "living off the fatta' the lan'".
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Outside reading part 2: Review
Deception Point
by Dan Brown
Rachel Sexton is an NRO agent. When she receives a call from the President, she is suddenly thrown into a chaotic political dilemma. She is sent to the Arctic where NASA has apparently found a meteorite containing the fossilized proof of extraterrestrial life. A team of 4 civilian scientists and Rachel have been sent to confirm the discovery. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., a political storm is raging. Rachel's father, Presidential candidate Senator Sexton, has built his whole campaign on criticizing the money wasted by NASA, so when the news of their discovery is published, it hits him hard. However, an accidental discovery suddenly reveals a whole different side of the story, threatening the credibility of some and the lives of many others.
by Dan Brown
Rachel Sexton is an NRO agent. When she receives a call from the President, she is suddenly thrown into a chaotic political dilemma. She is sent to the Arctic where NASA has apparently found a meteorite containing the fossilized proof of extraterrestrial life. A team of 4 civilian scientists and Rachel have been sent to confirm the discovery. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., a political storm is raging. Rachel's father, Presidential candidate Senator Sexton, has built his whole campaign on criticizing the money wasted by NASA, so when the news of their discovery is published, it hits him hard. However, an accidental discovery suddenly reveals a whole different side of the story, threatening the credibility of some and the lives of many others.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Outside reading trailer
"Alert the president, this is a matter of national security"
(the sound of running people, scene cuts to a igloo like tent in the Arctic. Wind is howling, and the tent is shaking)
"We're going in. Regular proceedings-search and destroy. They've figured it out. Delta one, Delta one come in!"
The chronicle calls it: "One of the greatest thrillers of all time."
(gunshots, wind whistling)
"Rachel! Lets go there's nothing we can do about it! They're coming after us!"
(main actors grouped around something, eerie glow coming from the thing)"Oh my god. This can't be real..."
(News Reporter) "It seems that Senator Sedgwick Sexton's daughter has disappeared, along with three other world class scientists, however the intelligence agency has not yet published any details. Senator Sexton has recently been very strongly opposing NASA and calling them a complete waste of money, but we have just gotten word that they have discovered scientific evidence of extraterrestrial life...."
(cut back to arctic to a scene with a brutal fight against the elements, whistling wind, gunshots,
cracking ice, then silence)
Harrison Ford
Angelina Jolie
Daniel Craig
George Clooney
Coming to a theater near you
August 2010
(the sound of running people, scene cuts to a igloo like tent in the Arctic. Wind is howling, and the tent is shaking)
"We're going in. Regular proceedings-search and destroy. They've figured it out. Delta one, Delta one come in!"
The chronicle calls it: "One of the greatest thrillers of all time."
(gunshots, wind whistling)
"Rachel! Lets go there's nothing we can do about it! They're coming after us!"
(main actors grouped around something, eerie glow coming from the thing)"Oh my god. This can't be real..."
(News Reporter) "It seems that Senator Sedgwick Sexton's daughter has disappeared, along with three other world class scientists, however the intelligence agency has not yet published any details. Senator Sexton has recently been very strongly opposing NASA and calling them a complete waste of money, but we have just gotten word that they have discovered scientific evidence of extraterrestrial life...."
(cut back to arctic to a scene with a brutal fight against the elements, whistling wind, gunshots,
cracking ice, then silence)
Harrison Ford
Angelina Jolie
Daniel Craig
George Clooney
Coming to a theater near you
August 2010
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