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Children in Steinbeck: Barometers of the social condition
Abstract
Although he usually invested his fiction with several levels of meaning, John Steinbeck believed that a primary function of the writer was to be a social critic. This study examines the children in Steinbeck's fiction to demonstrate how these characters contribute to his assessment of the social condition. Three general, overlapping phases of Steinbeck's social criticism become apparent. In the early works, society enforces a life of drab conventionality upon the individual. In the second phase, society fails to nourish the individual's needs for personal dignity and communal belonging. In the final phase, society promotes self-serving values which lead to moral degeneration. Steinbeck's earliest works criticize provincial rural societies for repressing personal independence and initiative. The Red Pony and The Pastures of Heaven depict an agrarian environment where routine has replaced resourcefulness as the dominant way of life. In The Forgotten Village, a rural community's adherence to tradition threatens its very survival. Only by resisting these conformist pressures can children gain the clear vision needed to promote constructive social change. In his second phase, Steinbeck criticizes the capitalist ethic of modern society. In The Grapes of Wrath, the dominant socioeconomic institutions encourage divisive competition, complicating the children's effort to develop the communal values necessary for social regeneration. The residents of Cannery Row have attempted to escape the dominant capitalist ethic, yet the children of this subcultural community remain vulnerable in a naturalistic struggle for survival. Steinbeck's social criticism in his final phase becomes more moralistic in tone. The Winter of Our Discontent portrays a society in which the dominant institutions promote a Machiavellian value system, teaching children that to "look out for number one" is more important than protecting the common weal. Throughout his work, Steinbeck envisioned the ideal society as one that fostered both individual integrity and interdependence with others. As he reaffirmed in East of Eden, Steinbeck believed that the future of humanity depended on its nurturing children to become responsible as individuals and as group members.
Subject Area
American literature
Recommended Citation
Ouderkirk, Bruce J, "Children in Steinbeck: Barometers of the social condition" (1990). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9030141.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9030141