“Steinbeck as a Social Reformer: Critical Steinbeck”;
I. Steinbeck as a Social Reformer: Critical Steinbeck
“All men are moral. Only their neighbors are not.”
John Steinbeck (The Winter of Our Discontent)
Steinbeck’s role in the American intellectual and artistic scene is undeniably interesting. Seemingly not many writers of his period could really capture the variety, ambiguities and deep ambivalence of American society as greatly as he did. Robert Fulford reaffirms this idea by suggesting that: “Steinbeck is to Monterey what Goethe is to Weimar, what L.M. Montgomery is to Cavendish, what Shakespeare is to both Stratfords, and what God is to Jerusalem — that is, an author of such copious fame that enough of it spills over to make a town illustrious by association” . The aim behind this part of the second chapter is to focus on Steinbeck’s viewpoint regarding the different social groups presented by his fictional characters. The selection of these characters follows a definite pattern; we will be talking about the heroes or the heroines and even the minor characters who may reflect the situation of various social groups.
In the last chapter of Part One, Steinbeck demonstrates the amount of “discontent” all Americans experience in light of the pressure that capitalism exercises upon them. Throughout my research I have noticed that Steinbeck evaluates all phases of humanity, especially the common man and the complexities that worry the American people. He explores profound themes unique to each decade, taking into account the various features of the social and cultural backgrounds, and he stylishly situates his characters within these contexts. Steinbeck’s philosophy celebrates the independent individual, who is often resisting any kind of imposed authority, weather religious or secular. I am reluctant to give any labels to Steinbeck because these labels are inherently so laden with a specific ideology, and if there was one thing that Steinbeck was consistent about it was that of switching masks and poses to avoid being labeled.
Before we address some of social aspects of Steinbeck’s philosophy, as mentioned earlier, perhaps I will further delineate that his narrative centers around some important social values. These values presented by Steinbeck are those of common people whose values confront the values of material gaining and the race for money. Steinbeck is known for creating sympathy for all his characters, even for those who appear to be the cruelest or the meanest. Steinbeck uses the common man to satirize modern urban society. It is really central to mention that Steinbeck’s humor is most successful and this is due, in part, to his ability to elevate his characters, through humor, to the level of his ideal man.
It’s worth mentioning that each element, coming from Steinbeck, creates an attitude satirizing the common man and the environment surrounding him, which automatically helps build the consciousness of the nonconformist thinking. Steinbeck’s different attitudes towards the simple people underline his general opposition. Steinbeck’s style depends not only on the variety of his characters as much as on the variety of ways in which he manipulates the sphere of perception of his characters to convey the image of the non conformists. Not only did he become aware of native material for humorous literature and learn how to exploit it but he has also handled it meaningfully within the American tradition. In addition to the use of the ironic tone, in Steinbeck’s criticism I would like to stress the idea that The Winter of Our Discontent unveils a merciless attack against the evils of capitalism and consumer culture. Steinbeck paints a nostalgic portrait of the Depression era when America was commodified by capitalist approaches. Some critics would suggest that of all of Steinbeck’s works, this text conveys the most overtly critical examination of American culture and Steinbeck’s mounting cynicism in the years before his death. A closer examination of this novel reveals a remarkable presence of satire which enables a clearer depiction of the issues stated in his writing. Through the use of irony and satire, Steinbeck portrays how the American society wavers between the two stances; the ordinary man who goes easily with the grain of the main stream culture and the non-conformist who has a critical attitude towards life issues. It is further noted that the writer tends to ironically present the topic and create a definition of how American society functions.
In this logic, one can conclude that The Winter of Our Discontent mainly concentrates on the negative effects of consumerism in America and its moral repercussions while introducing social criticisms of marriage, family and American ideals. In the last years of his life, Steinbeck published bitter analyses of America; a non-fiction text such as America and Americans (1966) reveals the author’s view of the dramatic decline of American culture. The series of non-fiction essays entitled America and Americans offers a satirical commentary on the state of the union such as, “Why are we on this verge of moral and hence nervous collapse? […] I believe it is because we have reached the end of a road and have no new path to take, no duty to carry out, and no purpose to fulfill” (397). Steinbeck blames a large part of this moral collapse on capitalism and the devastating presence of consumerism. Through the depiction of the moral collapse of Ethan Hawley, Steinbeck puts forward the miserable future of America.
Steinbeck affirms that the text subverts the fantasy of the American Dream and from within and devalues the myth of American prosperity, a dangerous myth generally empty of any reality. As it is sown in The Winter of Our Discontent, the central protagonist, Ethan, becomes consumed with this idea of the American success and creates an illusonary world that is not based on any reality. Steinbeck implements a single image, a manifestation of the cultural myth of unlimited prosperity to be discovered and detained in the illusion of the American Dream. Rather than focusing on these admittedly crucial considerations, I would say that the pressure of maintaining the family has a significant role in the moral decline of Ethan Hawley. In The Winter of Our Discontent, Ethan experiences a deep pressure to obtain wealth. He eventually brings great shame to the family due to his corrupt means of reaching it. In order to make this pressure obvious early in the text, Steinbeck begins the novel with the following lines: “When the fair gold morning of April stirred Mary Hawley awake, she turned over to her husband and saw him, little fingers pulling a frog mouth at her” (3) SUBSTITUTE. The opening lines of The Winter of Our Discontent showcase Ethan’s playfulness towards his loyal, honest wife. This playfulness disguises the troubles that disturb Ethan and keep him wandering the streets of New Baytown in the middle of every night.
The family unit acts as a microcosm and recycles the ideologies adopted from the larger society. Thus, one of the most unmistakable manifestations of social pressure occurs in the family setting. Particularly in this text, the Hawley family represents a system of societal values. Deleuze and Guattari discuss the effects of the family within the capitalist system In their work Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1983) they state: “Private persons are an illusion, images of images or derivatives of derivatives […] Father, mother, and child thus become the simulacrum of the images of capital, with the result that these images are no longer recognized at all in the desire that is determined to invest only in their simulacrum.” Guattari and Deleuze advocate that what happens to the family in a capitalist state is that it ends by reprocessing cultural ideologies projected by the dominant forces, especially capitalist-driven ideologies. In this passage, Deleuze and Guattari suggest the individual is an illusion and the community of “father, mother and child” represents the personification of capitalist recirculation.
It is of key importance to notice that by creating the character of Ethan, Steinbeck does not represent him simply as a man who is longing for wealth and power; Ethan is waging a war against the savage principles of the unbridled capitalist society. In this logic, Jean Baudrillard’s The Consumer Society (1970) provides a practical theoretical background for understanding Steinbeck’s critical approach in studying the America society. When measured up to Baudrillard’s critical discussion of capitalism, “Steinbeck’s texts, both fiction and non-fiction, further clarify the consumerist tendencies of modern Americans and the prevalence of consumerism in American culture. Steinbeck incorporates the illusion of the American Dream as a central theme to his works and continues this theme in The Winter of Our Discontent” . The character of Ethan faces the moral complications of modernism. Through Ethan’s immoral actions in his attempt to attain financial success, Steinbeck unveils the elusive nature of the American Dream.
In his book The Consumer Society, Baudrillard comments on the pervasiveness of these matters: “the humans of the age of affluence are surrounded not so much by other human beings, as they were in previous ages, but by objects. Their daily dealings are now not so much with their fellow men, but rather on a rising statistical curve with the reception and manipulation of goods and messages” (25). The holiness of the commodity has materialized as the primary sacrament for modern humans living in the “age of affluence” as he calls it, and this can be noticed through the insistence on globalization and the construction of new industry made for the “manipulation of goods and messages.” The capitalist state is responsible for this chaos in things and the upholding of commodities. In his book, Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord similarly identifies the significance of the commodity as a critical feature of capitalist social system; he states that “The commodity appears in fact as a power which comes to occupy social life. It is then that the political economy takes shape, as the dominant science and the science of domination. The spectacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life” (41-42) . Debord’s argument scrutinizes modern culture by indicating how society worships commodities and allows them to completely confiscate social life. In The Winter of Our Discontent, the character of Ethan Hawley, for instance, along with the city of New Baytown, embody these condemnations regarding consumer culture.
Steinbeck concentrates the cultural myths of capitalism in a most horrid, blatantly evil figure: Mickey Mouse. Naturally, modern American society looks to Mickey Mouse and Disney World as the embodiment of childhood joy and the nostalgia for “better days,” but in this context, Steinbeck employs Mickey Mouse as the ultimate symbol for capitalistic greed and immorality. Within American popular culture, the smiling face of Mickey Mouse represents the height of childhood fantasy. At a pivotal point in which Ethan faces moral intersections, the Mickey Mouse mask offers a constant reminder of the value of monetary wealth and economic success in a capitalist system. Mickey watches Ethan, taunts him even, and smiles down upon Ethan from his high place on the grocery store shelf or listens to his daily sermons. The points in the novel in which Mickey appears convey the most striking moments in Ethan’s gradual downfall. REMOVE
To this point, consumerism has taken a major phase in the writer’s criticism; for instance Steinbeck brutally comments upon overestimating the role of consumerism and its place at the heart of the American society. Indeed, the philosophy of John Steinbeck that came to light during the 1930’s and 1940’s was profoundly concerned with the isolation lived by the proletarian individuals, and the hope that comes in the form of the collectivity. This evolution of Steinbeck’s concern with the group will form the core of this argument. Hence, The Winter of Our Discontent endowed Steinbeck with the opportunity to work out these ideas using fiction as an efficient tool to accomplish this goal, until at last he was capable of constructing a text that puts across the fulfillment of his work.
The Winter of Our Discontent illustrates the evolving of Steinbeck’s communal philosophy, and serves as the space in which he works out these beliefs from multiple perspectives. Thus, Steinbeck’s viewpoints appear to correspond to Marxism in numerous ways. An analysis of these similarities will help situate Steinbeck within the radical trend of writing. He is interested in the norms and beliefs of the group-man or what he labels as the “phalanx”. This concept of the phalanx forms the heart of Steinbeck’s radical vision. This analysis of Steinbeck’s novels must also be mindful of how his preoccupation with the collectivity is what serves differentiate him from many other radically concerned authors writing in the same period. Writing about the same topic Louis Owens proclaims in his essay entitled John Steinbeck and the Perfectibility of Man, that:
“Steinbeck believed that the human pursuit of perfection, even if never attained, would affect the best of societal and individual achievement, a theory influenced by Emerson’s evocation of the “unattained but attainable self” and reaching even further back to Jonathan Edwards’s vision of humankind floating on toward an ever-receding Godhead,” (4)
Similarly, in the epigraph of The Winter of Our Discontent, Steinbeck puts forward that: “Readers seeking to identify the fictional people and places here described would do better to inspect their own communities and search their own hearts, for this book is about a large part of America today” (1). Steinbeck asks is readers to investigate their own communities to notice the devastating impact of capitalism, the greed of their fathers, and the dissatisfaction that infects great success. Steinbeck’s final piece of fiction, The Winter of Our Discontent, represents the summary of his fierce attacks against typical American standards such as marriage, the domesticity of women, and male-centered business. The results of these criticisms are manifested in this text in which Steinbeck holds nothing back. The evils of capitalism surface through the juxtaposition of the commodity, the family pressure acting on Ethan to gain a higher economic status, and the compulsory set of values carried out by the mainstream capitalist thinking.
In comparison with what Steinbeck openly condemns about capitalist effects on collective consciousness, Georg Lukacs on the hand claims as he sets forth in The Theory of the Novel that, “to be a man in the new world is to be solitary.” The explanation of Steinbeck’s approach in contrast to other authors of the period may spring from the fact that radical writers tended to address these social issues either from a position supporting the working man, or one condemning the lifestyles of the upper class. The examination of this novel however, shows that Steinbeck frequently creates characters that mirror his own belief system. The reader is therefore, presented with a series of events involving Ethan, Danny and the Hawley family, and some of the other more colorful residents of Baytown. The profundity of the this presentation comes not from the plot but from the richness of Steinbeck’s delineation of his characters, and the communal existence that permits them to so smoothly make their way through a rather hostile environment.
Steinbeck’s suggests that some characters such as Margie Young, Ethan’s son Allen, and even Marullo are more viruses that infect the group through turning the phalanx into a mob. They all believe that an individual may be manipulated and sacrificed to benefit the masses, and therefore he can never truly become part of the group. The depiction provided of Ethan, Mary and Danny is one not only of communal existence, but also of an existence outside of the constraints of capitalism. They reject the shortcomings of men constantly worried by the pursuit of fame and fortune, and simply exist as who they are, and most importantly, they escape the solitary nature of the modern man.
The Great Depression operated as a shade sorting out Americans from the twist to the left that had been experienced in the 1930’s, John Steinbeck managed to brush away the curtain because his philosophy of the group-man was intrinsically radical even as he was at odds with the greater radical tradition. Just as Steinbeck’s philosophy developed, the focus of the argument was forced to develop as well. Over time Steinbeck constricted his focus until the concept of the phalanx was the only thing left at the heart of his radical narratives. Fittingly, this analysis of his work has helped to elucidate this focusing, as it has also become more focused on collectivity as the only prop of Steinbeck’s radical philosophy. Steinbeck surrounds his collective with an air of optimism and hope for humanity. Steinbeck is clearly trying to distinguish himself from the radical trend of thinking, yet he is doing so without ever demonstrating an unambiguous agreement with the values of the Communist Party. The presence of additional influences helps to demonstrate the way Steinbeck is simply a socially motivated artist using all of the various tools available to him.
In The Winter of Our Discontent, the outcasts, such as Marullo and Joey Morphy, are heroic; the good women are bad, the bad are good; home and family are precious; older people command respect (Cap'n Hawley); religion is only a ritual and a social custom; death is an escape. But here none of these elements is in full focus. The concern of John Steinbeck is higher, broader, and deeper than it has ever been before, as for him, morality seems to be decaying in all over America; for once he sees every group, every individual threatened alike. It is up to only a brave, individualistic few to support the old-fashioned virtues of honesty, personal pride, unselfishness, and brotherly love–and save the species. To summarize the values that are most important in this novel, there are, first of all, the disparagement of financial prosperity, condemnation of orthodox religion and conformity, and favorable attitudes toward home and security, personal honesty, individuality, misfits, prostitutes, and death.
The Winter of Our Discontent indicates a high level of disorientation from Steinbeck’s side, as he is making his first main attempt to expose some analysis of his collective philophy to his reader. “Steinbeck writes about America, what has always distinguished him from a great many other American Writers” . His writing treats the American scene in a way that indicates his concerns as a humanist. The novel is comical and light hearted at times, but this only serves to increase the refinement with which Steinbeck finally delivers his discourse on collectivity. Hopefully this analysis of his work would help illuminate this focusing, as it has also become more focused on collectivity as the solitary reinforcement of Steinbeck’s radical philosophy. Steinbeck does not openly call for revolution, or rely entirely on either attacking the rich or supporting the poor; he is simply struggling to find a way to illustrate the necessity of one man to be willing and able to rely on another for support. The Winter of Our Discontent speaks out directly these central issues. It doesn’t only explore the depths of individual and societal corruption, but it also offers an insight into the means for our redemption. Winter is a work whose message is for the ages. Our days audience would really benefit from listening to Steinbeck’s wise final words, lest they prove true and “another light goes out”.