Chapter one: Re-assessment of the Ethical Crisis//
The Novel’s Traumatic World: Traumatic Selves:
“The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man”
Steinbeck, John. 1962 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
The Winter of Our Discontent is John Steinbeck’s last novel; which is noted for reflecting the American society versus the implications of modernity. The novel narrates the story of a town that is torn between integrating itself into the new culture imposed by modernity or preserving its roots and traditions. Through the life of Ethan Hawley’s family, the author compares and contrasts the different standards of honesty and success. The main character, Ethan, lives with his wife Mary and their two children, Marry Ellen and Allen, in a small town on Long Island. Ethan is a clerk in a grocery store owned by an Italian immigrant, Alfio Marullo. Ethan’s family used to own the store but after going bankrupt, they sold the store to Marullo who provided Ethan with this job. The story demonstrates Ethan’s efforts to improve his family’s living conditions at any expense.
In this opening part of the first chapter, I discuss the various conflicting aspects of the novel while I study the attitudes of characters towards variant issues such as gaining wealth and climbing the social ladder. This approach will hopefully help me come across the major justifications backing their traumatic deeds and thoughts, and eventually will enable us to determine the dangers which the American culture faces, particularly the misconception about the American Dream which is built upon the misleading hypothesis that material possessions are a means of obtaining happiness and self satisfaction.
The novel opens with Ethan debating his wife Mary about the conditions they live in. She starts: “You always mix me up. You’ve got every right to be proud; Pilgrim Fathers and whaling captains right in one family.” (41) Ethan replies “Would my great ancestors be proud to know they produced a goddam grocery clerk in a goddam wop store in a town they used to own?” (41). Ethan’s response alludes to his dissatisfaction and discontent with his life. Ethan feels that he deserves way more respect than he gets and that he merits to be more than just a grocery clerk. Hence he will work hard in order not to remain so. The novel revolves around Ethan's efforts to better his conditions and earn the pride he wishes for himself and his ancestors. The protagonist, despite his discontent, is a humorous character who manages to make jokes and silly remarks while not forgetting what he strives for in life. Ethan's playfulness attracts the readers to his characters; his remarks although they may seem funny, somehow manage to convey a deeper meaning. For instance, his reply “They in jail?” to Mary’s phrase “I was going to tell you about the children.” shows that a character like Ethan, throughout this novel, will continue wavering between humor and philosophical quests regarding ethics, social justice, and the significance of honesty in business.
As described above, Ethan used to own a store he had inherited from his ancestors. Nevertheless he fails to preserve the property due to his irresponsible management but also due to some of his father’s bad business decisions. That’s why we see Ethan blaming his father for the loss of their wealth. Ethan states “My father was a gentle, well-informed, ill-advised, sometimes brilliant fool. Singlehanded he lost the land, money, prestige, and future; in fact he lost nearly everything Allens and Hawleys had accumulated over several hundred years, lost everything but the names-which was all my father was interested in anyway." (77)
Due to the father's wrong business decisions the Hawleys are now seen as common and poor people, though they preserve some social respect thanks to their glorious past. One day, as he was on his way to work, Ethan stops to watch his family’s old and beautiful house:
“He looked back at the fine, old house, his father’s house and his great grandfather’s, white-painted shiplap with a fan light over the front door, and Adam decorations and a widow’s walk on the roof. It was deep set in the greening garden among lilacs a hundred years old, thick as your waist, and swelling with buds.” (3)
The Hawleys used to own almost two thirds of the town; they enjoyed not only a prestigious status but also a certain social grandeur. Ethan meditates on his family’s past with negativity and gives no thought to how he could improve his current situation and make a better future for his family. It is evident that what Ethan is carrying is a pessimistic and a self defeatist attitude towards life.
On his way to the store ( if it is the same day you can say " As he was still on his way to his store"), Ethan witnesses the evacuation of the old Bay Hotel and its substitution by a Woolworth’s store. Ethan interprets this event symbolically and sees the bulldozer and crane as if they “were silent like waiting predators in the early morning” (9). Steinbeck (the author ?) refers to the “big crane,” and “the wrecking ball” as America's new economic landmarks, enforcing consumerism and washing away the country cultural authenticity, an image which he portrayed in the wrecking of the old Bay Hotel. It is of great importance to mention that The Winter of Our Discontent mourns the loss of the past. The scene of the wrecking of The Bay Hotel stands for the removal of one of America's historic landmarks. Through the building of a Woolworth's store, Steinbeck highlights the expansion of consumerism throughout the American lands, even in the smallest and most purest villages like New Baytown. ( I looked up Wooworth's and found that it is an American economic landmark that really existed, I think you should use an online resource to identify it and show its significance in the reality of the American economy, may be use wikipedia?)
As we go further into the story, we meet another main character, Margie Young, Mary’s best friend and the fortune teller of the village. When Margie visits the Hawleys’ house, she reads Ethan’s fortune and describes the presence of a "snake" in his fate. She says “Oh I’ll tell all right! Once when I was a little girl I saw a snake change its skin, a Rocky mountain rattler. I watched the whole thing. Well, looking at the cards, they disappeared and I saw the snake changing its skin, part dusty and ragged and part fresh and new, You figure it out” (127). Regarding "Snakes" significance in Christian beliefs, it is considered as an Omen. However, the fact that the snake is described to be changing its skin, the fortune could be read otherwise, it can be a symbol of radical change in Ethan's fate. Throughout the novel there is always a reference to a change which is still unclear up to this point, but Ethan, answering Mary’s questions “What’s come over you?” (146) declares “Ah! You do know, don’t you? A change—a bloody big storm of a change. You are only feeling the outmost waves.” (146)
Ethan is a shifting personality, which is an irregular type of characters for Steinbeck to represent in his novels. In most cases he holds his characters on a steady line. Readers usually expect Steinbeck's characters to remain as they had appeared in the beginning of their novels and to be faithful to themselves. However, Ethan's persona alters as the novel proceeds, he does not persist with the same psyche. At the beginning of the novel, he is a contented, peaceful grocery clerk. But as we read, he gains a sort of obsession with wealth and power. He reaches a mental state in which he distrusts everyone around him. At the end he returns to the personality that he had when the story began, although he could never be quite the same after experiencing those dreadful hours. Ethan says “Do I love money? No, I don’t love money. But I don’t love worry either. I’d like to be able to hold up my head in this town. I don’t like the children to be hang-dog because they can’t dress as good—as well —as some others. I’d love to hold up my head.” (36) This quote sums up a very important philosophy of life, as far as Ethan is concerned. Some of us don’t love money for the sake of money, we are simply afraid of being ill-treated by those who have and to be classified among those who have not. This is one of the main reasons behind our immoral deeds. This quote also demonstrates Steinbeck’s analytical capacities and his deep understanding of the American psyche.
Ethan faces temptation from several people around him. First of all, he is offered a bribe from Mr. Bigger; he says “You don’t get it. I don’t want Marullo. This five percent would be in cash—no checks, no records, no trouble with the tax boys, just nice clean green cabbage from my hand to your hand and from your hand to your pocket.” (63) Ethan responds saying: “All right. Suppose I took the five percent and turned it over to Marullo?” (63) Mr. Bigger further insists, arguing that “I guess you don’t know them like I do. You turn it over to him, he’ll wonder how much more you aren’t turning over. That’s perfectly natural.” (63) Ethan initially refuses to be bribed; Later on, however, he surrenders to it. Moreover, Margie Young Hunt, his wife’s best friend reveals to Ethan that he is going to be a rich man in the near future; Margie is a materialistic type of person and she is depicted by Ethan as a money “hunter” (16). It is only later on that Ethan discovers her evil plans. Margie Young Hunt joins a group of people who worship “the great God currency” (132). She then suggests adultery to Ethan by inviting him to her house. Ethan is also tempted by Morphy ( who is he?) to rob a bank who says to him: “Simple as socks. Everything opposite. Never rob a bank if you ever got caught or booked for anything. No confederates— do it alone and don’t tell a soul, nobody. Forget dames. And don’t spend it. Put it away, may be for years. Then, when you’ve got some excuse for having some money, bring it out a little at a time and invest. Don’t spend.” (47) Morphy also tries to convince him that taking bribes is common. Ethan’s boss, Marullo, also gives financial advice to him saying: “business is money, money is not friendly. Kid, may be you too friendly… too nice. Money is not nice. Money got no friends but more money” (23). What we read here is a temptation made to Ethan to become a conformist in a society that gives great value to money. Last but not least, Mr. Bigger, the drummer, tries to tempt Ethan into submitting his grocery to some sort of patronage to Bigger's wholesale business. Mr. Bigger, claiming that “Everybody does it, don’t be a fool” (25), justifies his intentions. At his very first encounter with Mr. Bigger, the reader might dislike such a character; not only because of his dominating character, but also for to his firm conviction that the inferior should submit to the superior.
The pressure of temptations is continuously increasing throughout the novel; he is overwhelmed by materialistic advice and the idea of doing anything for the sake of money. Ethan, therefore, retreats to “Old Harbor” and makes it a refuge from the temptations he faces, a place which describes saying: “It is odd how a man believes he can think better in a special place. I have such a place, have always had it, but I know it isn’t thinking I do there, but feeling and experiencing and remembering. It’s a safety place—everyone must have one, although I never heard a man tell of it." (77) Being in “Old Harbor” allows Ethan to recall his family’s past and rejoice over feelings of pride and comfort in the midst of a harsh world that values nothing but money. He reflects on his ancestry, “And my ancestors, my blood—the young ones on the deck, the fully grown aloft, the mature on the bridge. No nonsense of Madison Avenue then or trimming too many leaves from cauliflowers. Some dignity was then for a man, some stature. A man could breathe” (47). In his debate with his grandfather ( when and where? in Old Harbor?), old Cap’n, Ethan says “there must be a difference” (88). And old Cap’n responds saying that “only in a single man alone—only in one man alone. There’s the only power—one man alone, Can’t depend on anything else” (48). Ethan reflects upon the idea that he has the choice in his own life, and that he can choose to fight against the materialistic temptations and maintain his moral principles despite the obstacles he encounters on a daily basis.
Ethan questions whether “a man can think out his life, or must he just tag along?” (76). He begins to experience a deep change within himself. Commenting upon this predictable alteration, I would say that what Ethan is going through, is not a radical change, it’s rather a late discovery of an already existing and buried part within his own self that he is not aware of. Steinbeck sheds light on the consistent war between good and evil, and the predominance of false expectations within the American psyche. Later on when Ethan starts to internalize the main beliefs of the modern way on how to handle business, he feels that Mr. Biggers begins to look at him differently. He notices that “Mr. Biggers began to look at me with respect, and I liked it. I loved it.” (78)
MISSing PARAGRAPH ABOUT LD CAPTAIN ADVICE
None denies that Ethan has become a powerful individual, yet not like old Cap’n recommended but as his society wishes him to be. Ethan, in this sense, has chosen the easier path; that is to say, to melt into society, stop resisting and most importantly, to become an “eater” himself.
Ethan is seriously studying the idea of robbing a bank and he asks about all the details. Talking to Joey Morphy, teller at the First National, Ethan says:
“You ever get stuck up, Joey?”
“No. But I had a friend that did twice.”
“What did he say about it?”
“Said he was scared. Just took orders. Laid down on the floor and let’em have it. Said the money was better insured than he was.” (46) In this passage, Steinbeck smartly shows the extent to which Ethan is ready to go in order to reach economic prosperity. Soon after, Ethan allows the illusion of success to take the wheel and betr²ay his boss Marullo and his friend Danny to acquire the fortune Mary so desperately desires. Ethan, for instance, informs the Immigration Services that Marullo is a previous illegal immigrant in the United States; he knows that in case Marullo is sent back home he can buy the store from him at the lowest cost.
It seems that Ethan is dominated by uncertainty and disturbance. He reflects human beings in general; every individual has melancholic memories that tie him to his past. This ideological war takes place in Ethan’s mind. Ethan depicts it as a “secret and sleepless area of black, deep, waveless water, a spawning place from which only a few forms ever rise to the surface” (86). In this quotation, Steinbeck is focusing on the animal side in Ethan; this side has been repressed and hidden by social standards. Now that Ethan doesn’t worry that much about ethicality, his evil side has, as he expresses, “thrust up to the surface as though a sea serpent emerged from the great depth” (122). Hence, for Ethan success is only achieved through conformity, and virtue is essentially insignificant.
Steinbeck suggests that Ethan is not self confident; for him, Mary’s counting on him helps create his sense of worth. The way Ethan looks after Mary is in one way or another a means for him to build his own self esteem. However, Ethan continues justifying his failure and making up excuses for not accomplishing valuable things in his life. He argues “If the laws of thinking are the laws of things, then morals are relative too, and manner and sin. That’s relative too in a relative universe” (57). In this context, Richard E. Hart states that “for Steinbeck, to be a human person is tantamount to being caught in a paradox, is to be engaged, sometimes unwittingly, in living and working through the dilemma of being at once both a determined unit of nature and a free, value-articulating individual forever called upon to act”. Ethan seems not to have a well-built character; he is unable to challenge his circumstances in order to remain loyal to his principles.
It is evident to say that our age is the age of trauma. But since the trauma of fictional characters takes place in a controlled way in the world of literature, the impact of fictional trauma, if I may use this terminology, on the reader, is much more mediated. Steinbeck portrays trauma lived by individuals from a psychosocial standpoint, with a big focus on the issues of the victimization of minorities in the United States. Trauma theorists such as Laurie Vickroy, Anne Whitehead, and Ronald Granofsky all argue that “Trauma breaks the sense of continuity in our lives and our inner selves, bringing to the surface the contingency of our lives” . In her book Trauma and Survival in Contemporary Fiction, in which she investigates fictional depictions of trauma in different literary works, Laurie Vickroy suggests that “trauma narratives, although fictional, can communicate a traumatic experience as realistically as survivor testimonies because of their powerful narrative techniques, including symbolism”.(P39) Vickroy further explains that;
“Our minds consist of basic beliefs, values, and expectations that display random events or a meaningful and reasoned sequence of personal narrative. Depending on one’s personal history and cultural legacy, it may have different elements and object relations that stay in the foreground or background. Generally, it operates as a wall that creates a safe space for the self to evolve relatively free from intrusive forces. It keeps a comfortable and sympathetic system of ideas, and networks of inner links with the outside world. It also provides a sense of prolongation that seems to promise another horizon to look forward to regardless of whatever confusion and difficulty one may have at the present moment.” (P65)
Our protagonist, Ethan is going through a traumatic experience which causes him a thorough disorder at both the personal and the social level. As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, trauma is a medical term referring to “a wound or an external bodily injury,” or “a psychic injury, especially one caused by emotional shock the memory of which is repressed and remains unhealed” or “the state or condition so caused.” Reasonably, the traumatic shock resulting from Ethan’s loss of his family’s fortune dispossesses him from the psychological surrounding in which all his life events have taken place. In parallel to what has been said on trauma, Ethan seems to be a perfect illustration; he is doing the exact thing he has always despised, “eating a weakened brother,” who is his childhood best friend, Danny Taylor.
Danny, Ethan's closest friend is a member of one of the biggest families in New Bay Town. Ethan speaks of him saying: “Danny is as near to a brother as I ever had, same age and growing up, same weight and strength. May be my guilt comes because I am my brother’s keeper and I have not saved him. In childhood I can remember no picnic, no circus, no competition, no Christmas without Danny beside me as close as my own right arm. (81) Thanks to him family, Danny owns a big property which happens to be the town's only possible surface for building an airport. Despite that being an advantage, he manages to become the town's drunkard. Ethan offers to help him with a bit of money to be able to rehabilitate himself. Danny suspects malicious intentions behind that offer but he fails to resist it. He knows that Danny's sole guarantee is his property. Several days later, Danny is found dead and Ethan inherits his property, an event which did not seem odd to the rest of the township; By lending him the money, Ethan allowed the death of Danny, who used the money for more drinking which would eventually kill him. Ethan was sure that Danny will drink himself to death and that is the reason behind his offer. He sacrifices his “brother” in exchange for his land as collateral. This immoral act may be the changing point in the novel and in Ethan's journey.
This novel genuinely presents the normal man who is wavering between his evil deeds and his feeling of guilt. This is revealed to us through the deep analysis of Ethan’s personality, but it also intends to say that there is a little of Ethan in every one of us. Ethan does bad things and he justifies them by saying that “Strength and success—they are above morality, above criticism,” and “In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught” (187) He admits his shift in moral values by referring to the low value of moral responsibility whenever it comes to attaining wealth and monetary things. Later in this section, Ethan reveals the incredible load of failure and discloses the logic behind his immoral consideration: “And if I should put the rules aside for a time, I knew I would wear scars but they would be worse than the scars of failure I was wearing? To be alive at all is to have scars” (92). In this quote, Steinbeck delivers a solid nihilistic view of the American society through the character of Ethan. The protagonist rids himself of any moral consciousness in order to remove his " scars of failure" which he inherited from his ancestors. Steinbeck also depicts Ethan’s self questioning and attempts to justify his immoral and dishonest new self. ( can you find a quote to back this up?)
When Ethan returns to the store, a gray cat bothers him so much. I believe that this gray cat stands for the blend of good and bad in man; man therefore, is a victim of his own bestiality, yet able to keep his desires under control as well. Satirically, Ethan’s son, Allan, is following his father’s steps as if he inherited his father’s perspective for life. In a very symbolic action, Allen wears his father’s Knight Templar’s hat. It is paradoxical for Ethan to have the white plume of honor after all his deeds; he believes that Ethan is not worth owning it anymore. Furthermore, when Allen is arguing about the modern theories of getting rich, Ethan insists on the importance of morality in legitimizing these theories arguing; “Well, that might be all right. Do you really love America or do you love prizes?” (70.) It is obvious that Ethan justifies his dishonesty while he detests his son’s deviant way of thinking. Ethan is building the same false world as his son; when Ethan’s wife, Mary, is talking to Ethan about the way he treats his son he replies “I gave him a quick glimpse of the real world. He was building a false one” (171).
Ethan is disappointed at his own weakness; he sought after happiness and self satisfaction through the dishonest acquisition of power and wealth. He thought he was better than all other men, but when he discussed with Allen about money and morals he noticed that his son shares the same quest and longing for money, and this terrifies him. When Ethan realizes that his son is planning to be rich through plagiarizing his essay entitled ‘I Love America,” he recognizes that he has passed corruption to the following generation which is supposed to represent hope and change. Allen is concerned with one individual; himself. Through this dialogue Steinbeck suggests that if we do not work on stopping the circle of corruption the future will be no different.
Ethan is back again to “Old Harbor”, the only place where he feels honest and frank to himself. He says “There comes the time for a decent, honorable retirement, not dramatic, not punishment of self or family—just good-by, a warm bath and an open vein, a warm sea and a razor blade” (276). Ethan is in the depths of despair, this comes from the fact that he does not want to feel the pain of his consciousness anymore. He believes that he has nothing to put forward to his family, people, and society and that his age as an individual is over. He argues that “It isn’t true that there’s a community of light, a bonfire of the world. Everyone carries his own; his lonely own… my light is out. There’s nothing blacker than a wick” (275) Suddenly, when Ethan reaches in his pocket, he discovers the hope in his life, his daughter Ellen. He finds the Talisman which his daughter Ellen placed in his pocket, as a reminder of faith and hope. The talisman “was circular, four inches in diameter and an inch and a half at its rounded peak. And carved on its surface was an endless interweaving shape that seemed to move and yet went no place. It was living but had no head or tail. Nor beginning or end… You can see into it and yet not through it” (173). Much like for his daughter, the Talisman gives Ethan a meaning for life. It assists him in dealing with the unbearable existence he lives. The symbolism of the talisman may be parallelled to the symbolism of Ethan's daughter in the latter's life. They both serve as a beacon of hope and as a reminder of his humanity and of the moral consciousness he used to carry within himself.
For Ethan, the talisman has the power to combine the very contradictory elements of this world. It gives the power to Ethan and his family to link their past with their coming future despite the difficult moments they might have gone through. Talking about the power of the Talisman Ethan says
“I presume that every family has a magic thing, a continuity thing that inflames and comforts and inspires from generation to generation. Ours was a—how shall I say?—a kind of mound of translucent stone, perhaps quartz or jadeite or even soapstone. It was circular, four inches in diameter and an inch and a half at its rounded peak. And carved on its surface was an endless interweaving shape that seemed to move and yet went no place. It was living but had no head or tail, nor beginning or end. The polished stone was not slick to the touch but slightly tacky like flesh, and it was always warm to the touch. You could see into it and yet not through it. I guess some old seaman of my blood had brought it back from China. It was magic—good to see, to touch, to rub against your cheek or to caress with your fingers. This strange and magic mound lived in the glass cabinet. (173)
In a word, the talisman helps Ethan regain his pride and sense of self fulfillment. As Hart suggests: “For Steinbeck, man is not just a cultural or political or economic animal but fundamentally a species in nature, a unique and hopeful part of the whole and never detached from it” (52) Later on, Ethan discovers that hope lies not in his son Allen, but in his daughter Ellen. He states “I had to get back—had to return the talisman to its new owner… else another light might go out “(276). After discovering this truth Ethan turns into a new person with a more hopeful and promising future. Commenting upon this Nathaniel Philbrick says: “Only after he has connected this insight with his own daughter… does Ethan find the will and the strength to emerge from the tide pool’s carnivorous waters, an almost evolutionary progression in which his self centered obsessions with the past and present give way to one truly altruistic act directed towards the future”
Up to this part, I have dealt primarily with the novel’s criticism of subjects and society as I have shown through the attitudes of a set of characters who are resisting social codes and determining their own norms and rules. The novel also shows Steinbeck’s valorization of their traumatic existence apart from normative society. This combination depicts the contentment and self satisfaction of characters resisting the confines of capitalist restraints and social expectations. He dislocates these conventional codes established by society. This part demonstrates that greed and dishonesty are the key destroyers of the American nation and includes them as the contributors to Ethan Hawley’s moral decadence, representative of the overall decline of the American culture. As it is evident by the brutal treatment of modern society in this text, I reflect upon the insurmountable evils pervading America. Alienation of the individual is, therefore, an automatic result within a society that commodifies the other and marginalizes human values and principles; this being said leaves the characters of the novel locked up between two choices; either to melt within the mainstream culture of corruption or to be ousted and isolated from the communal life.