John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men And The Grapes Of Wrath

The year of 1902 in Salinas, California, John Steinbeck was born. At the time many did not and would not think much of him for several years; however, he would eventually grow to become one of the most influential authors of his and our time. The works Of MIce and Men and The Grapes of Wrath are still read in schools today, forever immortalizing his work and his thoughts on how life was during the Great Depression and the dust bowl. Seeing how long his works have survived for truly shows his skills and how well done his books are. Steinbeck grew up in California with a father who was a county treasurer, a mother who was a teacher, and three sisters. His household was very religious and involved in their local church; so much so, that he became an altar boy and discussed some memories he had from working in the church in a few of his novels (Shillinglaw). As an adult he married (many times) and had a few children with these women. One of his children, John, became addicted to drugs and alcohol and died young from these addictions. The feelings he had about his son’s early death can be
Journalist, laborer, apprentice painter, caretaker of an estate, and fruit picker were just some of the many jobs he tried before settling on writing (Knoles). The first book he published, Cup of Gold, went unnoticed along with his next two books. Tortilla Flat was the first book he wrote to get wide recognition throughout, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath following in popularity. Steinbeck’s works were often called social novels because of the discussion of the problems in rural life and labor (Frenz). His knowledge of theses problems grew as he travelled from migrant camp to migrant camp getting stories from the farmers who left their homes trying to get jobs. Doing this research for his books, is really what separated him from the time and led to him going to Vietnam to report on the was as one last important