John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
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John Steinbeck (1902-1968) is considered the foremost novelist of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and his own life contains insights into the development of his sympathy for the dispossessed, the downtrodden and the migrant workers as evidenced in two of his early novels, the 1936 In Dubious Battle, and the 1939 The Grapes of Wrath. These novels reflect his concern with the struggles of common laborers, of which he had firsthand knowledge through his observations and work as a laborer, a seaman, surveyor and migratory worker among other jobs. He believed that one of the main functions of a writer was to "serve as the watch-dog of societyąto satirize its silliness, to attack its injustices, to stigmatize its faults" (McMichael 1939).Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California to a middle-class family, and grew up in a valley that was fertile, but also one in which the agricultural and factory workers were exploited. "The plight of these workers made a deep impression on him" (Kneer 79A). "From his boyhood he was self-supporting; he worked as a laborer ąand migratory fruit picker" (McMichael 1939). These experiences led to Steinbeck's interest in the human condition. In Dubious Battle focuses on the class struggle of the late 1920s and 1930s as it depicts "the lives of migrant workers and their resistance to exploitation by the entrenched forces of society" (McMichael 1939). Steinbeck's most famous novel, for which he received the 1940 Pulitzer Prize, The Grapes of Wrath,
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sion" (Steinbeck Country). The Grapes of Wrath was written in Los Gatos, and the town of Watsonville, near the Santa Cruz Mountains, is most likely the setting of In Dubious Battle, where a strike by migrant fruit pickers did take place. Steinbeck also traveled with dispossessed tenant farmers from Oklahoma to California and visited migrant labor camps to gain deeper insight into their plight and minds. The personal insights gained by Steinbeck offer deeper insights into the novels and their characters, and into the author's value system.
Steinbeck's mother was a teacher, and from her, he "learned to love booksąAmong his early favorites wereąMilton's Paradise Lost" (John Steinbeck). The title, and opening quotation of In Dubious Battle comes from Milton's epic poem: "Innumerable forces of Spirits armed/That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring/His utmost power with adverse power opposed/in dubious battle on the plains of Heaven."
Set in the apple orchards of the Salinas Valley, In Dubious Battle was Steinbeck's first novel of social protest, showing the efforts of farm labor organizers during a strike called when orchard owners want to cut the workers' pay, that was little enough to begin with. The book also established
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Approximate Word count = 1788
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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