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Novelist · Writer · Journalist
A 20th century American novelist who wrote ``The Grapes of Wrath'' about farmers and migrant workers during the Great Depression. He carved into literature his perspective on the socially disadvantaged. It is a representative of modern American literature.
View in catalogSalinas
Birth
California
Work
The Grapes of Wrath
1939
Book
Great Depression
1929–1939
Political event · Context
Map: Natural Earth (PD)
Born in Salinas, California, he grew up surrounded by agricultural areas and the lives of workers. He continued to write while changing universities and jobs, using the nature and poverty of the West as material for his works.
In works such as ``Of Mice and Men'' and ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' he depicted the Depression, agricultural capital, migration, and the breakdown of families. He used a simple speaking style to bring social issues closer to his readers, and received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
While ``The Grapes of Wrath'' received high praise, it also received backlash for criticizing capitalists and local authorities. It shows that when literature depicts social reality, political controversy is inevitable.
Studying Steinbeck reveals the problems of poverty, migration, labor, and land loss that lie behind America's prosperity. You can understand society during the Great Depression and the New Deal not only as statistics but also as human experience.
