25373+Steinbeck+View+of+Death

= John Steinbeck - View of Death =

Through his career, John Steinbeck prided himself as being a non-teleological thinker. He began to see the world and society as it is, without questioning why something happens. No occurrence was given a greater reason than simply “things just happen” (Benson 243). Even death should have been observed in this man​ner. However, Steinbeck did not always seem to view it in this mindset.

His way of thinking was first apparent as he cared for his mother, after a stroke left the entire left side of her body paralyzed. He referred to her as a human unit that “is deterred from functioning as she ordinarily did, by a schism of a number of her cells” (Benson 265). But merely six months later, as his mother continued the struggle to hold onto life and his father’s health began to suffer, Steinbeck says, “Death I can stand but not this slow torture wherein a good man tears off little shreds of himself and throws them away”(Benson 272). Also later in life, after his favorite sister, Mary, died, Steinbeck’s other sister Eleanor stated that “each death seemed to take a little more out of him [Steinbeck]” (Bloom 39). His stand as a non-teleological observer should have removed any emotional attachments, granted that they are loved ones, but clearly he was pained by their misfortune.

Also, this non-teleological thinking should have been apparent in his works as well, and maybe it was. Almost everything dies in his books at one point or another; animals like the red pony in //The Red Pony// or the dogs in //Of Mice and Men//, people like Lennie or Curley’s wife, or even dreams like that of Kino’s hope of a better future for Coyotito in __The Pearl__ or Lennie and George’s dream, in //Of Mice and Men//, to “have a little house and a couple of acres and a cow and some pigs” (Steinbeck "Of Mice" 14) and to “live off the fatta the lan’ an’ have rabbits” (Steinbeck "Of Mice"14). But taking a closer look, the red pony and Lennie, the “weak, deformed, and deficient don’t survive” (Benson 243) in a world where, in Steinbeck's opinion, “the best that man can hope for is to be able to adapt to what is and survive” (Benson 243). But it is precisely that inability to adapt that destroys those characters, a sort of natural selection that gives their death a reason, a reason that should not have been present if they were in accordance to his beliefs.

In a letter to George Albee, Steinbeck says, “I have neither great love nor great hate, neither sense of justice nor cruelty” (Steinbeck "Letters" 93), which again reinforces his supposed way of thinking. Once again though, Steinbeck conflicts that statement through his own pieces. He presents a common theme in many of his stories, a “suggestion of a closed energy system”, similar to what some call Karma. In this system, one will “gain something here, lose something there” (Bender 41). In //The Pearl//, Kino’s baby boy, Coyotito, is shot dead by one of the trackers, which is immediately followed by Kino murdering all three trackers. In __Of Mice and Men__, Candy offers George and Lennie help in realizing their dream, “this ideal place” (Themes) that “keeps the two men bonded to each other and offers hope” (Themes), but it is immediately followed by Lennie killing Curley’s wife, subsequently destroying both their hopes and, ultimately, Lennie himself. “A tragic loss [or sense of tragic loss] followed by a qualified compensation” (Bender 41), or vice versa, that Steinbeck presents, shows both the justice and cruelty of life, which again gives explanation to these characters’ deaths. Steinbeck, whether conscious of it or not, presents the idea again in his own life when he looks back and refers to his father’s death as a turning point in his life, after which he would have continued success and never again have to struggle to survive as a writer.

Fiction pieces live because of reasoning. There must be a cause and effect, otherwise it cannot make sense. So, it could be that Steinbeck was forced to use reasons for death in his work or that subconsciously, his mind thought otherwise of what he claimed. Maybe more defining is that when he was sixteen, Steinbeck nearly died of pleural pneumonia and “always feared catching pneumonia again and he worried a great deal about his own death” (Bloom 11). That, however, leaves two options. His fear could have been due to his thinking that death has no reason and so it could have happened at anytime, or perhaps it dawned upon him that the closed energy system would come full turn. After all, he did become pretty famous.

Works Cited:

Bender, David. //Readings on Of Mice and Men//. San Diego, Californi: Greenhaven Press Inc, 1998. Print.

Benson, Jackson. //The Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer//. New York, New York: The Viking Press, 1984. Print.

Bloom, Harold. //John Steinbeck//. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003. Print.

"Themes and Construction: Of Mice and Men." //EXPLORING Novels//. Detroit: Gale, 2003. //Student Resource Center - Silver//. Gale. Boyertown Area Sr. High School. 5 June 2010 .Web.

Steinbeck, John. //A Life in Letters//. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 1989. Print.

Steinbeck, John. //Of Mice and Men//. New York: Penguin Group, 1993. Print.