JOHN STEINBECK'S PEOPLE

CORA LEE NIXON

Fictional characters are only fabrications of an author's mental creativity. In the introduction to his novel Cannery Row, John Steinbeck stated that what we call people depends upon the peephole through which we view them. Steinbeck, through his characters' vocabulary, dialogue, idiosyncrasies, and speech habits, literally develops that "peephole" through which the reader sees the characters.

John Steinbeck's own words create the best conclusion that this author could hope to compose. Readers seeking to identify the fictional characters and places here described would do better to inspect their own hearts, for this book is about a large part of America today.

After becoming intimately acquainted with many of Steinbeck's people, one quickly realizes that John Steinbeck respected, loved, and enjoyed the company of all people regardless of their status in life. He disliked class distinction. He portrays the overwhelming importance of the simple people in contrast to the facade of the upper class in American society He shows anger in his attitude toward those who trample on the underdog or the underprivileged.

It is evident that Steinbeck tends to favor the use of strange and bizarre characters. Many critics have pointed out that he has very few normal people in his novels. It is true also that John Steinbeck has the unique ability, through description and dialogue, to create heroes or heroines even of abnormal people. He is capable of making the reader eager to accept the situation just as he relates it.

Thus, the character seems no longer to be the unusual but the normal and average type. When the reader can untangle himself from the writing and look at the novel objectively, he realizes that his attitude toward the character is the result of some unusually effective creativity on the part of John Steinbeck.

In the dialogue of the characters Steinbeck portrays one of his major themes in all his novels. It is a theme that he regards as the hub of life--that never ending con- test of good and evil within each person. Just as one sees Somerset Maugham maturing the character of Phillip Carey in his novel Of Human Bondage, the reader can see an even stronger web of ambivalence in the people of Steinbeck's fiction.

Only rarely does any one of Steinbeck's characters stand out as a very good and a drainable person. There is never any doubt, however, about his belief in the essential good in mankind. If the character is endowed with a great deal of evil, he will likely somewhere in the novel show an unusual amount of worthiness. Steinbeck equally distributes the good .and bad traits in characters.

John Steinbeck has perhaps gone farther than any other American novelist toward being the champion for the underdog or the underprivileged. He is their voice calling out in the dark jungle of our society. He pits the haves against the have-nots and in all of his novels the have-nots win, and in having them win the contest, Steinbeck shows a satisfaction in seeing the conformist lose his position. He is very persuasive in his arguments. The reader gets engrossed with the entangling activities of the under-privileged. His sympathy leans heavily in the direction that Steinbeck leads. Steinbeck is sincere to such an extent in his concern for the down-trodden individual that the reader follows him without a second's consideration.

Steinbeck is never slow in introducing a character. Very shortly after the introduction, the person takes on personality through dialogue or through quoted thoughts. The character almost immediately builds to full size, that is to the size of the author's intentions. Through carefully chosen words, the character becomes a living reality. An individual quickly, subtly, and purposefully takes shape. His emotions are clear, never appearing as opaque forms. He is easily pictured even in a distant setting.

 

John Steinbeck's characters are truly a distinctive breed. The likeness in characters between novels outweighs the differences. There is a line of similarity threading through his books; yet each creation has a special touch. Each Steinbeck person is an individual, but each retains that characteristic Steinbeckian quality because of the peephole created with the language or sounds of the people. Steinbeck's characters are obscure yet easily acceptable;  mean yet lovable; horrible yet sympathetic; unusual yet believable; unreal yet captivating.

It is possible for an author to write a memorable story without having firsthand information and experience of his subject. Stephen Crane did in The Red Badge of Courage. Margaret Mitchell did in Gone with the Wind. But usually the reader expects a writer, who chooses to criticize the bitter and the sour in our society, to be able to say with Walt Whitman, "I am the man, I suffered, I was there."

And the reader is not disappointed in Steinbeck, for through his character creations, he produces the idea of having been present with these people, of having lived with them, and of having loved them as fellow human beings. One refuses to accept the fact that he was ever there for any other reason than that of choice; nonetheless, his presence among these characters shows in his character creation. How else could he use the language, which beautifully pictures each individual in his vast number of people?

As a conclusion to this study, charts are presented in an effort to unify the characters as a whole. Sixteen characters are viewed according to several commonalities. No norms have been set. No evaluation has been made. The charts are simply for the purpose of observing some of Steinbeck's people in relationship with each other. John Steinbeck's people stand in a category all alone. Steinbeck not only successfully creates the individuals but also carefully builds the peephole through which the reader sees the characters. And somehow within that viewing procedure he inserts some mirrors which exactly reflect real individuals in life. Thus his creations become two-fold products, characters in a story and lessons in living. Steinbeck's technique of character creation may often be copied, but it will never be accurately reproduced.

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