Steinbeck’s California

Honors English
30 October 2010
Steinbeck’s California
Imagine the journey Steinbeck took, starting in the Salinas Valley, California in nineteen hundred and two (Benton 149). He then traveled California and found many inspirations for his characters. A bold, adventurous life he then pursued as a writer. The inspirations he found ranged from locations that inspired characters, people that inspired characters, and the time period that inspired the story lines that Steinbeck is acclaimed for. His journeys took him through many marvelous parts of California, later landing him in the Montery Peninsula the home of Cannery Row (Dickstein 111).
The characters in Steinbeck’s book relate to significant locations Steinbeck experienced while in California. Visiting California would be like visiting the characters from his novels (Griesback 151). Once inside the art of his novels the character structures fold out revealing themselves as what Steinbeck saw in California (Gaither 56). It is as if the land its self manifests inside of Steinbeck’s words. The nature of California became an escape for Steinbeck (Dickstein 114). Being inside the protective shell Steinbeck could forget about the alleged world that he so despised, and focus on the extent of his character’s emotional relevance to men and relate them to the outside world that is California (Dickstein 119).
When Steinbeck first experienced California he undertook it as a lush garden full of wonder, but when Steinbeck experienced the Great Depression in the nineteen thirties California died to him (Dickstein 117). The California haven that shielded him from the outside world he distrusted was removed, and he then was forced to think of the terrible consequences of the depression happening right outside his own mind. Steinbeck’s experiences throughout this time period, however, did not completely ruin his outstanding ideals of the land. It inspired new concepts and characters in his writing. Steinbeck has his own way of taking his surrounds and putting them into print. Thus incurred throughout his life and it was uniquely put into his own story lines. The experiences he gathered and wrote about won him the Nobel Prize in nineteen hundred and sixty-two (“Steinbeck” 1). Although it has been debated about of whether his award was deserved or not, the controversy being over whether or not the depression age was exaggerated in his works, he did recount the events of the thirties through his works of “fiction.” This account helps people of the modern day remember or learn how the depression period of America was and could yet again be.
In addition to the places in California that inspired Steinbeck’s writing the people of California are more or less the base from which he stems his characters. Such an example is that of Gay, Mack, and the Palace Flophouse, these ideas are based from Cannery Row and from Gabe Bicknell. Steinbeck lived with Gabe Bicknell and his family in the nineteen thirties. Bicknell was incorporated into the characters of Gay and Mack along with the inspiration for the other boys. On the Row Steinbeck found ideas that inspired Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday (Lundy 60).
Almost exactly, word for word, the description of the Palace Flophouse matches, what used to be, a real place. The lot is denoted to be “directly across from the Laboratory” which it is in actual life (Lundy 62). It is obvious that real people and places from Steinbeck’s life in California are visible, contrary to Steinbeck’s quote on Cannery Row “The people, places and events in this book are, of course, fictions and fabrications.” Steinbeck’s fictional places and people appear to be quite real. Later Steinbeck issued the quote, “The book is only fiction in form and style (qud. in Lundy 15).” Looking back on the real Cannery Row in the nineteen thirties, it is hard to depict whether either of these quotes are completely true.
Perhaps the easiest way to justify John Steinbeck’s claim to fiction is to take into account that he traveled. Throughout his journeys he ran into many an inspiring character. Relating that the plot is fictional may be the only found realism conceived later in his works. For it can obviously be seen that California and its people played a major role in Steinbeck’s literary works.
As have the people and places influenced Steinbeck, the attraction of California’s great cost has been a huge influence on him. Steinbeck worked with Ed Ricketts, who later appeared as the character Doc in his Cannery Row, to discover a much more scientific undulating of the ocean creatures (Lundy 36). Their work together lead to many of the marine excerpts in Steinbeck’s books. Such an example would be of the long, detailed section of the sea turtle. One such reference of how the scientific studies of Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts was how Doc seemed to know of all the creatures of the seas. He knew the tide patterns, and he had a quest for knowledge to answer all of the unasked questions of the world. In this manor it can be related that much of Steinbeck’s work is taken from his environment (Beegel 27).
Ranging from the great depth of the sea, to the dusty roads, and to the people John Steinbeck met in his adventures through out, it is apparent that California was one of the greatest influences of his life. Without Steinbeck having been born in California it is quite questionable if Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, or Sweet Thursday would exist today. The Cannery Row that he lived on for an amounted time seems to be the meat and bones of some of his works. In that fashion Ed Ricketts, later the character Doc, had a huge impact on John Steinbeck (Beegel 32). The vast enormity that is California had the most impact on Steinbeck. Its people, places, events, and time period are prevalent throughout Steinbeck’s works.




Works Cited
Beegel, Susan F. Steinbeck and the Environment. Tuscaloosa and London: University of Alabama, 1997. Print.
Benton, Robert M. "Beyond Boundaries: Rereading John Steinbeck (review)." Rice Library-Login. Oct.-Nov. 2004. Retrieved.. 30 Oct. 2010.
Coleman, Annie. “Watching the Tides.” Rice Library-Login. Mar. 2010. Retrieved. 30 Oct. 2010.
Dickstein, Morris. "Steinbeck and the Great Depression." Rice Library-Login. Nov.-Dec. 2004. Retrieved. 30 Oct. 2010.
Gaither, Gloria. "John Steinbeck: The Postmodern Mind in the Modern Age." Rice Library-Login. Mar.-Apr. 2006. Retrieved. 30 Oct. 2010.
Griesbach, Daniel. "A Journey into Steinbeck's California (review)." Rice Library-Login. Oct.-Nov. 2006. Retrieved. 30 Oct. 2010.
Haslam, Gerald W. "The Steinbeck Centennial Year, 2002 -- Reflections and Highlights." Rice Library-Login. Mar.-Apr. 2004. Retrieved. 30 Oct. 2010.
Lundy, A. L. Real Life on Cannery Row: Real People, Places and Events That Inspired John Steinbeck. Santa Monica, CA: Angel City, 2008. Print.
“John Ernst Steinbeck.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Biography in Context. Retrieved. 8 Nov. 2010.