For instance, when Steinbeck accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature, in his acceptance speech he said, "The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing many of our grievious faults and failures, with dreding up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement" (George, 83)
Among other jobs, Steinbeck was a journalist before becoming a well-known novelist. He also spent some time working on ranches in order to better understand the lives of the migrant workers" (Kew)
However, in the mid 19th century the biggest pull for people to come to California was the desire to participate in the gold rush and to find some immediate wealth for oneself. Much of what influenced Steinbeck's stories were the events in the nation that Steinbeck lived through himself (Meltzer, 73)
He once wrote, 'I want the participation of my reader. I want him to be so involved that it will be his story'" (Schultz, viii)
This stylistic choice is in many ways a complete necessity because "Of Mice and Men explores a lot of fundamental issues that were prevalent during the early years of the twentieth century: discrimination, the roles of women in society, the dangers and consequences of being injured on the job, the unsophisticated judicial system, the lack of opportunity for upward mobility, and the cruel hardships of farm life. Above all, Steinbeck tackles the never-ending universal issue of human rights" (Weisberg)
He was also sensitive about his reputation. Although he continued to write into the 1960s, he felt critics only praised his books from the 1930s" (Williams, 4)
'It must be very nice. I wish women could do such things'" (Steinbeck 182)
How horrifying for a young boy, to watch the mother of his new colt be killed so the colt could be saved. Billy cut into Nellie's stomach, and "plunges his hands into the hole, and drags out 'a big, white, dripping bundle'" (Steinbeck) - and "with his teeth he tears open the birth sac and lays a black colt at Jody's feet" (Shaw)
He "personally had to change her bedclothes," Shaw explains. He washed between nine and twelve sheets a day, and while "contemplating his mother's death and the experiences surrounding it, he tried to 'sneak in a little work' (Steinbeck) and to put events 'into the symbolism of fiction'" Shaw continued
Americans value the environment and the natural resources they are given, and do not take them as easily for granted. Today, American environmental attitudes are both pro-ecological, consistent, and more likely to be related to environmental behavior and knowledge than ever before (Arbuthnot and Lingg 2007, pp
He notes that the American Southwest is filled with individuals who still feel the losses of their ancestors losing that land they treasured to foreign invaders, who are now forced to live under a society which they never embraced. Even the desert, he notes, which remains largely untouched, only brings back "nostalgia" of a lost time (Baudrillard 1986, pp
The environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s can be said to have started in 1962 with the publication of Silent Spring. Environmental atrocities and cover-ups involving toxic disasters were beginning to come to light and individuals who had once existed with a "not in my back yard" mentality were now focused on public health and a perspective of "not in anyone's back yard" (Freudenberg and Steinsapir 1991, pp
235-6). The United States saw a massive influx of "grassroots" organizations which sought to bring suit against many of the alleged environmental offenses that had taken place in years past (Kuzmiak 1991, pp
Baudrillard Travels with Charley: In Search of America, is a travelogue written by American author John Steinbeck that recounts the experiences attained during a 1960 road trip across America with his dog, Charley. Steinbeck, who had made his name writing novels about the American experience such as Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath, noted that he was moved by a desire to see his country on a personal level, since he made his living writing about it (McGrath 2011, pp
Unlike many social movements that have taken place over the course of history throughout the world and throughout America, the environmental movement did not fade with time, but increased significantly, receiving political support, increased media attention, and unfathomable support from the masses. In the early 1970s, around the same time that writer Jean Baudrillard was beginning his travels through America, the first environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were beginning to pick up steam and support in the political spectrum (Mol 2000, pp
265). Due to such an influx in awareness, individuals were able to return to a culture of environmental awareness and appreciation, and the environmental movement that took place began the transformation of "environmentalism as an ideology into a full-fledged social movement" (Silveira 2001, pp
67). Many years later, Baudrillard noted the same sense of disconnect in American culture, focusing not on its own land and resources (as seen by the American war in Iraq), but on the quest for others, perhaps to regain what it has lost (Solomon 2005, pp
1). Driven by a sense of wanderlust about a country in which he lived and wrote of but had never fully seen, Steinbeck set forth on a nearly 10,000-mile journey across America in a specially-made camper which he named Rocinante, after the horse of legendary literary character, Don Quixote (Steigerwald 2010, pp
. Yellowstone National Park is no more representative of America than is Disneyland" (Steinbeck 1961, pp
In his book, Steinbeck starts from the conclusion that good cannot exist without evil. His introductory description of the Salinas valley and its history contains this seed of thought: "Once a woman told me that colored flowers would seem more bright if you added a few white flowers to give the colors definition"(Steinbeck)