ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


Courses Videos 906 videos

American Literature 3: The Poe Must Go On (Part 1)
631 Views

What do you get when the guy who wrote “The Raven” makes a serious effort to write in verse? Poe-try… Now, when you’ve detached your eyes f...

American Literature: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
8968 Views

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, abridged. Ready? Go.

American Literature: Emily Dickinson
4357 Views

Emily Dickinson: Along with Van Gogh, proof that you’re never really famous until you’re dead.

See All

American Literature: Bend It Like Steinbeck 951 Views


Share It!


Description:

John Steinbeck wrote the stories of the outcasts––Dustbowl refugees, unemployed paisanos, cannery workers, André 3000 and Big Boi...uh, actually, that last one might be Outkast. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:01

No Hey there on the stein bro author John steinbeck's

00:22

number 1 fan check out my tat I know more

00:25

about steinback than anyone on the planet I wouldn't just

00:28

be able to teach a course on the guy i'd

00:30

be ableto found an entire college dedicated to him so

00:34

if you're looking for a crash course in all things

00:37

steinback well then you're in the right place biography time

00:40

While john ernst steinbeck the third was born on february

00:44

twenty seventh nineteen o teu in salinas california he was

00:47

the second of four children and the on ly boy

00:50

His father john steinbeck sr was the treasurer of monterey

00:53

county his mother all of hamilton steinbeck a former teacher

00:57

and still then her son A deep love for reading

00:59

and writing Salinas was a farming town surrounded by landscapes

01:02

of broad yellow valleys and rich green fields There's a

01:06

reason why it's official nickname is the salad bowl of

01:09

america although young johnny enjoyed a comfortable middle class existence

01:14

he first encountered really hardship while working during the summers

01:17

at a local beet farm Well many of his co

01:19

workers were migrant laborers and just about all of them

01:22

live Difficult lives years later these experiences would form the

01:26

basis of his first great book tortilla flat but let's

01:30

not get ahead of ourselves here Well after graduating from

01:32

high school in nineteen nineteen steinbeck enrolled at stanford university

01:36

Back then the computer science building was really small Although

01:40

stand back thoroughly enjoyed his english glasses he found college

01:44

life to be pretentious and phony Well stand back would

01:47

study off and on at stanford for six years leaving

01:50

campus frequently to take odd jobs at farms factories or

01:53

ranches He never would end up getting that degree After

01:56

quitting college once and for all sandack hopped on a

01:59

freighter to new york city where he worked in construction

02:02

and had a brief stint writing for a new york

02:04

american magazine But all signing was always a californian at

02:08

hard He just had to go back By nineteen twenty

02:10

six he was back in the golden state living besides

02:12

scenic lake tahoe and working as a handyman at a

02:15

resort About three years later he published his first novel

02:19

cup of gold quays a historical account of famous pirate

02:23

henry morgan's exploits in panama a country steinbeck had never

02:27

visited In his life ready for a shocker cup of

02:30

gold was a total dud Steinbeck was at his best

02:33

when he was minding his own personal experiences which doesn't

02:36

apply to a pirate story set in a central american

02:39

country Well steinbeck married carol benning and moved into a

02:43

tiny cottage and coastal pacific grove california Over the following

02:47

decades steinbeck would write some of his most legendary work

02:50

in that tiny shack His next two novels were set

02:53

in his childhood home of the salinas valley The pastures

02:56

of heaven took inspiration from steinbeck's friendships with poor farm

03:00

workers while to a god unknown focused on man's relationship

03:04

with nature Then in nineteen thirty five steinbeck released his

03:07

fourth novel tortilla flat sounds delicious set in monterey california

03:12

the novel focused on a group of paisanos which are

03:15

men of mexican indian spanish and caucasian background according to

03:19

steinbeck and their exploits in the years after world war

03:22

tortilla flat was a massive commercial and critical success Earning

03:26

steinbeck is first gold medal from the california commonwealth club

03:30

honoring californian writers which he would win again the following

03:34

year for his novel in dubious battle Well steinback got

03:38

his Inspiration for the novel after meeting to labor organizer

03:41

is hiding in california after participating in a strike at

03:45

this point in u s history things weren't looking so

03:48

good for workers The great depression had hit six years

03:50

prior destroying banks businesses and life savings across the country

03:54

At the same time a fearsome weather phenomenon known as

03:57

the dust herbal was tearing his way across the midwest

04:01

causing droughts galore and kicking off monumental dust storms In

04:04

nineteen thirty six steinbeck spent part of the year traveling

04:07

with migrant workers who fled the dust bowl for san

04:10

francisco and wrote a newspaper siri's on them here's good

04:13

quote from it They are men who have worked hard

04:16

on their own farms and have felt the pride of

04:18

possessing and living incl close touch with the land In

04:22

nineteen thirty seven steinbeck released one of his most famous

04:24

works the novella of mice and men which two was

04:28

inspired by the plight of migrant farm workers While of

04:30

mice and men is one of steinbeck's most famous and

04:33

beloved works the book has been criticized and even banned

04:37

many times over sometimes due to its political message which

04:40

was seen as anti business orth perceived racism or vulgarity

04:44

or even its supposed promotion of euthanasia Well good books

04:48

get censored all the time for silly reasons Remember when

04:51

harry potter was accused of leading the world in her

04:54

witchcraft And then in nineteen thirty nine steinbeck published the

04:58

real whopper the grapes of wrath like of mice and

05:01

men The grapes of wrath was inspired by the struggling

05:03

migrants that steinbeck befriended in his younger years The novel

05:07

was another massive success moving half a million copies in

05:11

its first year and winning the pulitzer prize and national

05:14

book award Well not everybody loved the novel The associated

05:18

farmers america thought that the book was overly critical of

05:22

big farmers leading many to perceive steinbeck's critique of business

05:26

as being supportive of socialism Well steinbeck wasn't even a

05:29

socialist just wanted everyone to play fair but then it

05:32

picked up some steam and first lady eleanor roosevelt praised

05:35

the book and congress began having hearings over the conditions

05:38

of migrant camps In nineteen forty one steinbeck divorced his

05:42

first wife and moved back to new york city with

05:44

new boo gwendolyn conger couple married in nineteen forty three

05:48

and had two sons steinbeck's only children in nineteen forty

05:51

four forty six A couple divorced in nineteen forty eight

05:55

and in nineteen fifty steinbeck married elaine anderson scott wife

05:59

number three the final one sign back wasn't interested in

06:02

easing into retirement however with wide ranging interests like marine

06:06

biology history war and poodles He explored whatever topic ing

06:10

treat him at the moment you know like when he

06:13

spent six weeks in the gulf of mexico with a

06:15

marine biologist bro and co wrote a book about it

06:18

called the sea of cortez steinbeck wrote more than just

06:21

books He was the new york herald tribunes war correspondent

06:25

during the early years of world war two and wrote

06:28

several movies including alfred hitchcock's nineteen forty four picture lifeboat

06:32

well don't think he abandoned the rural california novels that

06:35

to find his career he wrote cannery row in nineteen

06:38

forty five and a wayward bus in nineteen forty seven

06:41

Well that same year steinbeck took his first trip to

06:43

the soviet union as a journalist i know people were

06:47

a tad suspicious about his reasons for going was he

06:50

really there is a journalist Or was he one of

06:52

them Commies so many interpreted The pro worker sentiment of

06:55

his novels is being pro communist which eventually got him

06:58

monitored by the fbi Well apparently they weren't too subtle

07:01

because steinbeck knew all about it Even wrote a letter

07:04

to the us attorney general in nineteen forty two complaining

07:07

about it Time for my best steinbeck impression Here we

07:10

go Do you suppose you could ask edgar's boys to

07:14

stop stepping on my heels They think i am an

07:17

enemy alien is getting tiresome Well the edgar he's referring

07:21

to his fbi director j edgar hoover by the way

07:24

to critics of steinback his trip to the soviet union

07:26

was proof that the guy was a dirty kami What

07:29

other reason could he have to give the russkies face

07:31

time Well it didn't seem to matter that sign back

07:33

never joined the communist or socialist parties of america despite

07:36

coming into contact with them frequently during his time with

07:39

labor activists Ironically steinbeck would later be criticized for being

07:43

too conservative due to his friendship with his good old

07:45

buddy president lyndon b johnson and his pro war reporting

07:50

during the vietnam war well in nineteen fifty to steinbeck

07:52

published east of eden an epic novel that he considered

07:56

his masterpiece this tale spans from the civil war the

07:59

world war one and follows generations of two families that

08:03

trask ce and the hamiltons and later of which is

08:05

said to be based on steinbeck's own family A young

08:08

steinbeck even makes a brief appearance but east of eden

08:11

isn't just a personal book for steinbeck It also develops

08:14

the themes and ideas he'd been working on his entire

08:17

career Well in his later years steinbeck's books became more

08:20

philosophical The winter of our discontent steinbeck's final novel was

08:24

published in nineteen sixty one and in nineteen sixty two

08:27

he published the travelogue travels with charlie which strange as

08:30

it sounds is about a road trip he took with

08:33

his dog That same year steinbeck won the nobel prize

08:36

for literature for the whole of his writing output Steinbeck

08:39

described his philosophy on writing in his acceptance speech saying

08:42

that the writer is delegated to declare in to celebrate

08:46

man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit for

08:50

gallantry in defeat for courage compassion and love Two years

08:54

later he received the presidential medal of freedom from lyndon

08:56

johnson Along with a note declaring steinbeck had helped america

08:59

toe understand herself by finding universal themes and the experience

09:03

of men and women everywhere Then on december twentieth nineteen

09:06

sixty eight steinbeck died of a heart attack in new

09:08

york city Fittingly his ashes were buried in salinas california

09:12

the place he had immortalized in countless boats during his

09:15

long and illustrious career As we'll see the grapes of

09:18

wrath is heavily rooted in steinbeck's personal experiences from his

09:21

teenage days working with exploited foreign farm workers who appear

09:25

several times in the novel to his time is a

09:27

journalist following okies whose lives were destroyed by the decibel

09:31

Well the grapes of wrath takes all of these deeply

09:33

personal experiences from steinbeck's life and uses them to give

09:37

us a broader understanding of america as a whole not

09:40

shabby at all Which brings us to the end of

09:42

our foray into the world of steinbeck Here are a

09:44

few things to remember before you go John steinbeck was

09:47

1 of the most important american writers of the twentieth

09:49

century as evidenced by his nineteen sixty two nobel prize

09:53

victory which honored his works commitment toward fighting injustice also

09:57

learning about steinbeck's Personal life will help us better understand

10:00

the grapes of wrath Once we start reading it it's

10:03

not the end All be all but it's A nice

10:05

headstart Alright time Start reading because there ain't no party

10:08

like a steinbeck party because the steinbeck party don't stop

Related Videos

Catching Fire (Part 2)
6719 Views

“Happy Hunger Games!” Or not. Katniss’s Hunger Games experiences left a not-so-happy effect on her. This video will prompt you to ponder if...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
47687 Views

Who's really the crazy one in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

Edgar Allan Poe: The Twilight Connection
3322 Views

Sure, Edgar Allan Poe was dark and moody and filled with teenage angst, but what else does he have in common with the Twilight series?

El Gran Gatsby
866 Views

¿Por que es el 'Gran' Gatsby tan gran? ¿Porque de su nombre peculiar? ¿Porque de el misterio que le rodea? Se ha discutido esta pregunta por muc...

Fahrenheit 451
84301 Views

Would would the world be like without books? Ray Bradbury tackles that question—and many more— in Fahrenheit 451. Go ahead; read it on your Kin...