Steinbeck's+life+experiences

By: Nicki Miller

A fruit picker, a ranch worker, a tenant farmer, a poor man taken by greed; all have a story to be told. John Steinbeck takes his readers on a expedition showing the tales of these people through his written works. How does John Steinbeck allow these readers to glide through the pages of his books feeling as if they were placed within them? Maybe his best books came from reminiscences of life experiences he has had, making it easier for him to inform the enjoyable and upsetting times these people faced. Could his well known, ranch-working and dream-hunting characters, George and Lennie be related to his own life?

John Steinbeck’s mother, Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, a former school teacher, and father, John Ernst Steinbeck, the County Treasurer, were both supportive of their son and were enchanted with his dream of becoming a writer (Contemporary Authors). Many of John Steinbeck’s most excellent and most recognized books are written with the setting in California, which is where he grew up. English is what John Steinbeck studied at Stanford University, but he left without a degree in the year 1925. After he left college he traveled across the country to New York where he was attempting to publish a first book. When he was unsuccessful at finding a publisher he made his way back to California. California was the place he knew best, it was where he grew up, where he found his first job, where he discovered what he wanted to do with his life, and where he got married. He knew how people in California behaved better than people in any other area of the world, so this is where he based most of his novels including the well known books, Of //Mice and Men////,// and //In Dubious Battle//.

Not all of John Steinbeck’s best books are written with the setting of where he grew up like, ////The Pearl////, which is set entirely on the other side of the world. This is a story of how a man is taken by the greed of being wealthy and must come back to what is truly important to him, his family. John Steinbeck was not a native in a far away country, living in a dirt floored home, but he did have obstacles in his life he had to overcome. Becoming the famous author we all know John Steinbeck as was not an easy path for him. He had to overcome the challenges of not being able to find a publisher and working many jobs which would not lead him in the direction he was planning on going, such as a hod-carrier, apprentice painter, laboratory assistant, and a construction worker, which are only a few of the jobs he held. As he was busy with these jobs he kept writing in his sights because it was what was truly important to him.

When John Steinbeck was young he liked to take long walks on roads alongside the ranches that were nearby his home. He would rest on the side of the roads and watch different ranchers as they worked in their fields. Some of the men working remember asking the young boy if he was lost but he always replied that he just liked to watch. As he became older he worked on some of the ranches in California, and when he returned to California from New York he worked as a fruit picker to earn some money (Contemporary Authors). The characters George and Lennie from //Of Mice and Men// traveled through California looking for possible jobs they could find on ranches. Since John Steinbeck went through ranch life he was able to show his readers emotions the two men felt as they went on their journey. In, //In Dubious Battle// John Steinbeck tells a story about a group of fruit pickers who organize a major strike.

The first few books that made John Steinbeck famous were based around life experiences he had. He wrote about people who lived in California like himself. He gave his characters the same jobs he had prior to becoming a successful writer such as a rancher and a fruit picker. When he didn't write directly about where he is from or jobs he had he still based his stories around the stories in his life. With the help of an eventful life John Steinbeck has grown to be a classic novel writer and has established himself as a well known author.

//Contemporary Authors: a Bio-bibliographical Guide to Current Authors and Their Works : First Revision.// Vol. 1-4. Detroit: Gale Research, 1967. Print.

"Internal Access." //Power Library//. Web. 1 June 2010.<[]>.