Introduction:
The 1960’s was a period of an intense artistic experimentation. It witnessed the development of diverse writing forms and methods and the spread a new wave of artists who have reached a notable reputation at that time. The increase in social unrest fueled the political concerns of artistic works. John Steinbeck was one of many writers who have argued these issues in their works. He portrayed the onslaught of materialism and consumerism as a ailment that hits the country and possibly leads to its moral degradation. In this context, Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent seems quite appropriate to serve the purposes of my research questions in terms of its context, subtexts, and thematic concerns. The novel favors going back to an age of purity and simplicity over the idea of modernity and its discontents. It tends to glorify the virtues of simple rural life in opposition to the modern indulgences. Nearly, this narrative draws attention towards Steinbeck’s critical view of social decay in that period and focuses on the rising trend of American extravagance. It embodies an overtly critical, yet forgiving writing. Steinbeck viciously attacks different elements of modern culture; still, his work includes glimmers of genuine fondness and hope for America and the American man.
Steinbeck lived between 1902 and 1968; he came from California. He studied history and literature at Stanford University. In his work, he often criticizes society and focuses on the life of people from the lower classes, such as farmers or fishermen, and their suffering during the Depression. Steinbeck suspended writing to explore marine life before to work as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune during the Second World War. Though his postwar writings became less controversial in their social criticism, yet his books continued to be essential reading in American schools. (P13) The Winter of Our Discontent is a fictional work that, describing corruption and longing for redemption, historicizes and documents the suffering caused by the Depression. It truly mirrors the miserable life lived by workers at some stage in the Great Depression and it goes on with showing Steinbeck’s deep concern with the marginalized people of the American society.
The moral and ethical lessons taught in Steinbeck’s works seem to be relevant not only to his era but also to our own. Joseph Fontenrose defines it in his essay John Steinbeck: an introduction and interpretation as a “study of the moral climate in America in 1960, the decay of standards evident in payola scandals, fixed TV quiz programs, kickbacks, devious methods of making profits, and the general acceptance and approval of the fast buck philosophy.” This novel combines proletarian characters with radical political views; thus, many observers criticized what they saw as anti-capitalist ideas that the novel disseminated. What is impressive about the story is that it remains clearly an account of current issues of human relations, politics and culture as it highlights moral dilemmas and acts of revenge. It deals with the moral decay of the hero, Ethan Allen Hawley, who was originally a very honest person, obviously more honest than anyone else in his neighborhood, but under strong pressure he yields and becomes corrupt. The pressure that finally makes him change completely is both direct, coming from Mr. Baker who keeps persuading him that with honesty he will get nowhere, and also indirect, coming from his own family; his children repeat that they want to be rich and his wife is a bit ashamed of his profession as a shop-assistant.
The The Winter of Our Discontent, communicates a clear message that although the economic leftovers of the Great Depression might cure quickly, the emotional traces left from this period had a significantly longer effect. Here, it is noteworthy this novel? even though it does not directly tackle political references, yet, it addresses, through individual lives, the larger problems of America. Through this novel, Steinbeck creates a new reality and takes us to a new sphere of perception; this tendency to be liberated from any established restraints shows Steinbeck’s longing to break free from his society’s standards of morality.
Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent doesn’t simply deal with the religiosity of the American people; it rather represents a reassessment of the ethical crisis and reevaluation of social and political life in America during and in the aftermath of Depression Era. The novel tells the story of a town that is divided between melting into the new culture imposed by modernity or preserving its roots and traditions. Through the Hawley family, the author portrays some of the characters’ attitudes toward honesty and success. A central question any such inquiry must consider is alienation in the modern world and the decline in one’s standards of personal, social, and political morality. The Hawleys are going to be affected by the revolution against old habits, but in a negative way. As we go further into the plot we discover that they own almost two thirds of the town; therefore they enjoy a prestigious social status. Yet, due to his father’s mistakes, Ethan and his family are now considered nothing but common people, though they preserve some social status thanks to their glorious past.
An examination of the available literature shows that there is a remarkable difference among statements examining the idea of Christianity in the novel and those portraying the various traits of the American community. Petr Pujman for instance, in the epilogue to the Czech edition of The Winter of Our Discontent, states that “there is a biblical parable hidden somewhere in the background, but present, a kind of a vague symbol” (82) I had the same understanding, when reading the novel for the first time; it is not obvious instantly that the story as a whole refers to the biblical narrative of death and rebirth, because Steinbeck does not use it in the same way as it is communicated in the Bible, but slightly modifies it.
“Several similarities between the Bible and Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent were foremost considered by two American reviewers; Joseph Fontenrose and Peter Lisca. They both studied Steinbeck in detail and concentrated on the mythological aspects in his works”. Additionally, Lisca elucidates this presence of the Bible in the novel, which is not immediately evident, by saying that “this use of structuring biblical sources in The Winter of Our Discontent is, as usual in Steinbeck’s fiction, creative, rather than imitative” . (P83) He further clarifies “it is true that Steinbeck certainly does not follow the story of Christ’s passion faithfully; rather he plays with it. It seems that Steinbeck chooses some of its elements and applies them to contemporary American society in order to find out whether they are still relevant in the modern world. This is proved by the fact that Ethan Allen Hawley does not embody only one biblical personage, but he incorporates three of the most important figures of the passion: Judas, Christ and also Pontius Pilate”. (84)
Lisca mentions one more obvious similarity between The Winter of Our Discontent and the biblical story: “Judas kisses Christ to identify him to the soldiers which is now perceived as a symbol of betrayal. After Danny’s death, Ethan has a dream in which he speaks with him and he also kisses Danny on the lips”. This cannot be a mere coincidence; it is understandable that Steinbeck wanted to refer to the biblical Judas. Another person betrayed by Ethan is his boss, Marullo, the owner of the grocery store where Ethan works. By an accident, he finds out that Marullo immigrated to the United States illegally and denounces him, which helps him to become the owner of the store himself. Marullo also finds out about Ethan’s intention, although most of the other people never find out who denounced him. As far as his death is concerned, the New Testament contains two contradictory stories: the traditional Christian explanation, which is widely accepted and which I also work with, is that Judas hanged himself. In the second version it is implied that he was stoned to death by the other Apostles, as a punishment for his betrayal.
Though the novel has at times been considered as a masterpiece of fiction, many critics have criticized the work for being full of misconceptions and prejudice. While other critics have presented alternative perspectives, Frederick J. Hoffman states, “The superior novel of this class is John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle” (189) , and even though he may be excessively presumptive in saying so, his argument does force the reader to consider the effectiveness of Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent as a vehicle for the expression of his own views.
In their analysis of The Winter of Our Discontent, Jackson Benson and Anne Loftis suggest that “When John Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent came out, Fred T. Marsh in a review in the New York Times called it, both dramatically and realistically, “the best labor and strike novel to come out of our contemporary economic and social unrest” (194) . Steinbeck’s novel depicts a vivid image of reality, real enough to captivate audiences, and “it is dramatically effective and convincingly realistic”(Ibid), but these things simply prove that Steinbeck is able to construct a narrative capable of being convincing to the reader, not that the novel is compelling in a way that would align his message with other leftist authors.
Steinbeck’s viewpoints meet with Marxism in numerous ways. The evolution of Steinbeck’s concern with the phalanx, or the group-man phenomenon, will form the core of this argument. In a 1933 letter to George Albee Steinbeck states that “man, arranges himself into larger units, which I have called the phalanx” (79) . This interest in the phalanx or group-man principle was one of Steinbeck’s utmost preoccupations throughout his career. This philosophy of the phalanx forms the heart of Steinbeck’s vision. This examination of Steinbeck’s novel should also take into consideration in what way his great passion with the collectivity had a great impact on distinguishing him from plenty of writers of his era.
Gloria Gaither, in John Steinbeck: the Postmodern Mind in the Modern Age argues that “Steinbeck’s works may be more appropriately read from a postmodern rather than a modern perspective” . As Luchen Li writes in his just published book, John Steinbeck: A Documentary Volume, “John Steinbeck was one of the most accomplished and widely read authors of the twentieth century. Today his books continue to sell millions of copies every year, both in and outside the United States. His themes cover a broad range of issues—social, political, cultural, moral, global, and environmental”. (xix, xxii)
The spokesman for the Nobel Prize committee, Dr. Anders Osterling, included this last novel on the list of those that had swayed the committee’s decision, for the Swedish Academy felt that Steinbeck had an “unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American, be it good or wicked.” The acclaim of the world, however, did little to silence American voices of disapprobation, at least in Steinbeck’s own mind. Since his first novel, Cup of Gold, published in 1929, Steinbeck experimented again and again with fictional techniques, structures, and voices.
It should be noted, however, that critics dealt out a good number of aughts and shoulds, suggesting repeatedly that a book with a moral theme must assume a weighty tone. “This book whimpers where it should bang,” said the critic for America, while Melvin Maddocks of the Christian Science Monitor asserted that since Steinbeck’s “natural hero is the primitive,” he should not stray to “man as a social creature.” And Granville Hicks of the Saturday Review thought Steinbeck’s book “superficial. He says nothing, for instance, about the fact that our whole economy depends on the production and consumption of more and more unnecessary goods, and he says nothing about the part that advertising plays. . .” That seems so wildly beside the point that one wonders if he read the novel at all. I would like to quote Relay Garcia’s reassessment because it is so brutally honest:
“Several years ago I had the pleasure of writing an essay on… The Winter of Our Discontent for inclusion in A Study Guide to Steinbeck: A Handbook to His Major Works…. In preparation for this brief introduction [to a Study Guide (Part II)] I re-read that book, in the process immodestly reviewing my own theme. Reality is a harsh mistress, and I would write that essay differently today…. The book I then so impetuously criticized as somewhat thin, now strikes me as a deeply penetrating study of the American condition. I did not realize, at the time, that we had a condition…. [Steinbeck’s] work thus rewards a returning reader, is seemingly amplified by our own enriched experience”. (P34)
In a report for The New York World Telegram, John Barkham suggested that “the narrative is an example of the approach oblique where the approach direct was needed.” What would have grated in that review was the accompanying notion that Steinbeck had betrayed his own reputation by being inconsistent. For the whole of his long career, John Steinbeck resisted consistency. Each book was an “experiment” in his eyes, and with each, he felt, reviewers wanted him to turn back to some previous triumph, usually his work of the late 1930s.
Fontenrose adds that Steinbeck’s literary production starts as purely biological and ends as purely mythological. In the course of the development of his writing, a reader moves from the organic world, which is described in a realistic and even naturalistic way, towards the spiritual and imaginative world. The first is lived by “hurrying, fighting, feeding, breeding animals” and filled with cruelty, symbiosis, sexual attraction, friendship, love, etc., but each individual is living his life only for himself.
In the light of research discussed in the literature review, it should be possible to end with the conclusion that apart from dealing with the issue of Christianity, The Winter of Our Discontent is a text that should be read from a sociopolitical standpoint. Considering the limited critique of the sociopolitical paradigms of The Winter of Our Discontent, I argue that an additional elaboration of this part is recommended. I also focus on treating the dialectics between the self and the other from both sociological and psychological perspectives. Most appropriate for a critical approach, I believe that an interdisciplinary approach is fairly appropriate to the study of The Winter of Our Discontent. To guide this inquiry therefore, I will consider a Marxist approach along with the concepts of Trauma and Social Outcasts for a critical reading of Steinbeck’s text, as they all provide an analytical foundation for the critique of the consumer takeover and the moral decadence explored in The Winter of Our Discontent.
Pertinent to the claim of my research, the structure of the overall body is divided in a way that corresponds with the breadth of the given events and themes created by characters. Fittingly, the first part of is devoted mainly to exploring the novel’s traumatic world, discussing the various contradictory aspects of Steinbeck’s novel while providing an examination of the inner trauma of its characters. Next, I look at the context that causes the alienation of the individual within the American society. While explaining, I will focus on Steinbeck’s reassessment of the ethical crisis within the American society.
The second chapter emphasizes the point that Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent, best serves as an example delineating issues of different social scenarios and power relationships. I review the main social and political reevaluations made by Steinbeck’s narrative in order to create a rationale and approach to study what is consistent with my topic area. My exploration into searching, analyzing, and interpreting the social world leads to questions about the American way of thinking as well as issues associated with studying people who are oppressed. Ethics and contradictions of power are more particularly examined, as are those methods of study that lend themselves to illuminating predicaments as it has been previously alluded to.
This study intends to make obvious Steinbeck’s attempt to describe the living conditions in California's central valley and shows to what extent his beliefs and attitudes were hesitant when writing about the complex relationships that drove social and economic life in the 1930s. Steinbeck understands the economic forces that affected people's lives; he comprehend them in the way they needed to make the United States economically stronger yet, he also realized the amount of suffer and humiliation on the personal level. Steinbeck also, wisely, skirts any overtly political analysis of his homeland. This truth, obviously, does not come to us in such simple terms, but when Steinbeck addresses it in this narrative, it is difficult not to try and make sense of it.