《美国作家john steinbeck》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《美国作家john steinbeck（17页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、1,John Steinbeck,2,contents,I. Family background II. His writing career III. The Theme of The Grapes of Wrath IV. Writing style V. The contribution,3,John Steinbeck (1902-1968), a significant American novelist、 story writer、 playwriter、and essayist. He was born in Salinas , California. His father wa
2、s a government official, and his mother a school teacher. He grew up at home reading British and French classics. He went to Stanford University (1919-1925), but never graduated. He worked as a farm laborer, a seaman, a newspaper reporter, a bricklayer, a chemists asistant, a surveyor, and a migrato
3、ry fruitpicker.,4,His writing career,Nearly 40 years writing career , he published 12 novels, 2 volume short story collections, 1 scientific experiments novel, 3 travel notes . He also set his foot in screenplay creation and photography.,5,He is awarded the title of American “National Literary arts
4、Institute academician”（国家文艺学院院士）, and “The American literary arts study academician”（美国文艺研究院院士）,6,Medals:,THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1939), won in time the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. And in 1940 he obtained the Nobel Prize in literature nomination. At last John Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literatu
5、re in 1962. William Faulkner listed him as the present age “one of five biggest writers of fiction” .,7,His masterpieces,The publication of Tortilla Flat (1935) made Steinbeck popular. Then he wrote a book entitled In Dubious Battle(1935), a very articulate “proletarian” story、and then Of Mice and M
6、en appeared in 1937,it became a best seller、 and in 1939 The Grapes of Wrath , regarded as his greatest masterpiece . The three works were called American “agricultural labourers trilogy”.,8,The Theme of Grapes of Wrath,The title of the book comes from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a war song o
7、f the Civil War. The story is about the migration of agricultural workers who in order to survive can not but leave the native land to move from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to California, where they hope to have a better life. The book consists of two blocks of material: the westward trek of Joads and
8、 the dispossessed Oklahomans, and the general picture of the Great Depression.,9,All sorts of poverty-stricken in the novel is mostly John Steinbecks personal experience or witnesses. The Great Depression throws the country into abject chaos and makes life intolerable for the luckless millions. One
9、of the worst stricken areas is the central prairie lands.,10,There farmers become bankrupt and begin to move in a body toward California. The westering is a most tragic and brutalizing human experience for families like the Joads.There are unspeakable pain and suffering on the road,and death occurs
10、frequently.Everywhere they travel,they see a universal landscape of decay and desolation.,11,When crossing the big Death Valley desert and into California, the land full of hope for them, and try to settle down, they meet with bitter resistance from the local landowners, and the migration is ended i
11、n broken dreams.,12,Writing style,For one thing Steinbeck utilized the different literature art expression means. and makes the novel become the artistic model： unique visual feeling、harmonious melody、nimble diverse literature form、as well as rich national sympathy fervor. for another, perhaps more
12、important, reason, that its structure is dictated by the Bible.,13,Three sections in the nover correspond to “The Exodus” story in the Old Testament. The Exodus tells about the bondage of the ancient Jews in Egypt, there escape out of it and journeying toward Canaan, the Promised Land. In distant ti
13、mes, so the story goes, the Jews went to Egypt in search of food and , having stayed there for some 400 years, became the slaves of the Egyptian Pharoah. Their suffering was such that God sent Moses as his prophet to lead them out.,14,This Moses did, and the great host traveled through the desert to
14、ward Canaan, only to meet with bitter resistance there.The Grapes of Wrath, in emphasizing the fact of the Oklahomans coming from the Oklahoma desert, crossing the big Death Valley desert and into California, works out the parallel to “the Exodus” admireably well.,15,The contribution,The Grapes of W
15、rath is a crisis novel. It is Steinbecks clear expression of sympathy with the dispossessed and the wretched. The Grapes of Wrath helps in great measure toward increasing the nations awareness of the seriousness of its problems. It reflects USs history and the social phenomenon.,16,The Grapes of Wra
16、th was successful, and opinion poll showed the novel was evaluated one of the greatest novel by the American public. But at the same time, the novel also caused American some to comment the public figure intense negative influence . It is interesting that the reader populace have not come under the influence slightly to his work enthusiasm.,17,Thanks!,
