Transcript How Green Was Steinbeck? - PPT

Steinbeck and
Ecology
We will be using John Steinbeck’s Grapes of
Wrath to structure our exploration of the
environment.
Who is Steinbeck?
John Steinbeck
(27 Feb 1902 - 20 Dec 1968)
American writer whose 27 books include
the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of
Wrath (1939), East of Eden (1952) and Of
Mice and Men (1937). He was awarded the
1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, for his
“realistic and imaginative writing,
combining as it does sympathetic humor
and keen social perception.”
Important Facts:
• Considered the foremost novelist of the American
Depression of the 1930s, John Steinbeck was the
1962 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• He studied firsthand the struggles of the migrant
workers; he celebrates their labor in ritualistic
terms and shows the downtrodden overcoming
their many adversities through courage and
dignity, and through their compassion for fellow
sufferers.
Steinbeck Quotes:
“It is not enough to say that we cannot know or judge
because all the information is not in. The process of
gathering knowledge does not lead to knowing. A
child's world spreads only a little beyond his
understanding while that of a great scientist thrusts
outward immeasurably. “
“…all things are one thing and that one thing is all
things—plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on
the sea and the spinning planets and an expanding
universe, all bound together by the elastic string of
time. It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the
stars and then back to the tide pool again."
— John Steinbeck (The Log from the Sea of Cortez)
When published in 1939, the book
was severely criticized for being a
"socialist" or "communist" novel.
The Grapes of Wrath
• A key issue explored in the novel is agriculture. We see the
shift from family farms to corporate agribusiness, and the
hunger of the dispossessed.
“The driver sat in his iron seat and he was proud of the
straight lines he did not will, proud of the tractor he did
not own or love, proud of the power he could not control.
And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man
had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth
sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or
lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised,
had no connection with the bread. The land bore under
iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or
hated, it had no prayers or curses.”
How green was
Steinbeck?
Steinbeck early on in his career developed an
interest in Ecology with a keen awareness of how
natural and changing environmental conditions
affected animal populations, their growth or
dwindling, their shifting habitats, their survival
strategies, etc.
Points to Consider…
• Steinbeck explored the major issues of the day, greed
and corruption, friendship and loyalty, fear and
survival, weakness and heroism.
• Steinbeck’s insightful writing resonates with many
modern developments in ecological and
environmental thinking.
Construct a T-chart comparing
the dust bowl to global warming.
Dust Bowl – 1930’s
Global Warming - 2011
• What were the causes of
the dust bowl?
• How were the farmers
affected?
• What was the reason for
the migration from the
dust bowl?
• Where did the people
from the dust bowl go?
• For decades, ecologists
have been studying the
clearing of the rainforest
and predicting disaster in
the form of global
warming. Consider the
problems of the dust
bowl era and make a
prediction about the
destruction of the rain
forest. Support your
research with facts.
Summarize
The Grapes of Wrath is about
the farmers in the 1930’s
during the Dust Bowl era. Is
this novel relevant for today?
Why or why not?