John Steinbeck's 'Junius Maltby'

Junius Maltby is a short story by John Steinbeck about an accountant from San Francisco whose name is the title. After relocating to the countryside due to a respiratory illness Junius is put under public scrutiny because he is living on the farm of an unmarried widow. Because of this the widow ask him to marry her to which he promptly agrees, however when he does this the widow fires her hired farmhands and expects junius to do farm work of which he has no idea how to do and no will to learn. It is hard to say who Steinbeck intended the protagonist of this story to be as a large part of this story is dedicated to Robbie, the young son of junius. Conversely the antagonist is clearly the judgement of the public eye. For this reason, the nature