John Steinbeck: life and literary works

¶ … authors, John Steinbeck puts a lot of himself in his novels. In his novels we can see self-characters, representing Steinbeck himself in some ways and also hidden characters that represent his family, his friends and the events of his life. We also see how the people he met in his life resulted in his interest in some major themes that are seen in many of his novels. The greatest of these themes is the question of what is real wealth, which this question provoked by Steinbeck's own family and childhood and also his interaction with poor farm workers.

The greatest example of self-character is seen in East of Eden. In A Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letter Steinbeck calls the novel "the story of my country and the story of me." The story is narrated by Steinbeck as himself, telling the story as the Grandson of the main character, Samuel Hamilton. Samuel Hamilton is a character similar to Steinbeck's own father. Samuel Hamilton has the Irish heritage of his father and has also achieved the same kind of success, where Samuel Hamilton became a blacksmith, well digger and doctor and Steinbeck's own father was the county treasurer. In both cases this is a respectable profession but not one that bought great wealth. Samuel Hamilton's life is also similar to Steinbeck's fathers in that he married and had four children and also that they struggled financially in bringing up their children. This is in parallel to Steinbeck's own childhood with the brothers and sisters also having the characteristics of his own siblings.

In Of Mice and Men, the most obvious hidden character is the self-character of Steinbeck himself. The narrator in the story is the voice of Steinbeck and the setting is Steinbeck's home of Salinas.

In the main characters of George and Lennie, we can see links to Steinbeck's parents and also to himself. George and Lennie are farmers who dream of a place of their own. This is similar to the struggle of his parents, who settled in Salinas, achieving their dream of finding a place of their own. The main theme here that links the two is the struggle to achieve one's dreams and how this often ends in failure. This also extends to the self-character of Steinbeck. The failure of George and Lennie represents Steinbeck's fears about achieving his own dreams. The relationship of George and Lennie can also be seen as mirroring his relationship with his wife, with George the strong character representing himself and Lennie the weaker character representing his wife. George's anger at times towards Lennie can be seen as a mirror of Steinbeck's reaction to his role as protector of his wife, with this also showing how he fears that he will not be able to support his wife fully.

The novel Tortilla Flat deals with the migrant workers and poor farmers. Doc Burton is a character in the book that represents Steinbeck's own ideas, specifically the ideas on how people group together. This theme is also a product of the poor farm workers he worked with in his youth as a ranch hand and fruit picker. The novel portrays how these workers are used in some ways yet accept their fate and bind together the best they can.