Deeply influenced by emotional, ethical, and ecological principles, John Steinbeck developed a holistic ideology to describe and analyze the relationships among individuals, society, and the more-than-human world. Although he explored environmental issues with ecological insight and philosophical contemplation that placed him well beyond his literary and scientific contemporaries, Steinbeck’s contributions to modern ecological inquiry and environmental thought have received only intermittent attention from literary scholars. Throughout his writing, Steinbeck develops a view of intellectual holism that encourages (perhaps even enables) us to dovetail science and ethics as we attempt to construct a new environmental paradigm. Viewing the world through his holistic lens, Steinbeck was able to see the global ecosystem, local environments, human communities, and even minute tide pools as objects of scientific and artistic inquiry. Specifically, it is my contention that the American environmental movement owes a greater debt to John Steinbeck than it realizes. In short, John Steinbeck made significant contributions to the growing awareness of human-nature interconnectedness and the parallels between social ills and ecological ailments. Yet, for whatever reasons Steinbeck is not granted a position of honor alongside the other giants of American environmental thought. Now witnessing the full blossoming of 21st century environmentalism, it is useful to cast a reflexive eye upon our ideological forebears with the intent to better understand the genealogy of the American environmental movement. Doing so will not only provide a richer and fuller family tree, but will also promote additional flourishing of new approaches to solving ongoing environmental troubles. / Master of Arts

The paper explores the human-environment relationship in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. It argues that every impact on humans by the environment or by human-made objects is initially triggered by human actions. The paper questions humans' and objects' agency. Furthermore, the essay argues that the environment either helps or impedes the novel's characters, which according to the book, can be solved by collaboration.

This thesis explores the possibilities for ecocritical study in fiction through John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. Major ecocritical interpretation has yet to gain much traction in novels; by focusing on human nature, this form’s “anthropocentric” posture seems itself to be antithetical to ecocritical efforts, which aim to unseat humans as the center of the moral universe. However, by analyzing The Grapes of Wrath’s formal, narratorial, and thematic valences, I argue that principles of social justice concurrently imply environmental justice in the philosophical currents of the text. Tenets of deep ecology and Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” inform the novel’s overall environmental outlook. The key to my interpretation is the value of community at the center of Steinbeck’s world. To expand principles of the collectivism and compassion in the social community to include the broader ecological community, I focus on the narrative’s unique Judeo-Christian spirituality and humanistic discourse. Ultimately I identify cohesion in The Grapes of Wrath’s composition that makes a single narrative of both the natural and the human worlds, and that creates a moral universe that guides ethical behavior towards others, both human and non-human; in doing so, I argue Steinbeck’s novel both enacts and represents an ecologically minded ethic.

<p>The paper aims to investigate the failure of the American Dream in the novel <em>The Grapes of Wrath </em>and the factors that affect it. Thus, the thesis of the paper is that it is the classes and castes of Californian that prevent the Joad family from fulfilling the American Dream.</p><p>The thesis will be discussed from four focal points of the American Dream: Freedom, Equality, Individualism and Family and Ideal Home. The novel takes place during the Great Depression, a time when many Americans were homeless and unemployed. An attempt will be made to define the American Dream and give a background to it. Furthermore, the binary pair of “self” and “other” will be used as an instrument of analysis.</p>

In this paper, I explore the environmental philosophy of three Californian modernists, who I have collectively named the Dust Dwellers: John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers, and Jack London. I argue that these writers participated in a broader modernist response to the ascendancy of the Enlightenment and its manifestation in industrial progress. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the Dust Dwellers' response was distinctly informed by their American identity. They engaged modernist themes of decay as applied to Western expansion and the dissolution of the American Edenic dream. Investigating the fractured relationship between civilization and the environment, they searched for a philosophy that could reconcile humanity to nature. Specifically, I argue that their environmental philosophy displays intellectual and creative congruencies that can be traced to the common influence of twentieth-century psychoanalyst Carl Jung. The foundational tenet of the Dust Dwellers' environmental philosophy parallels Jung's concept of the unus mundus. Mirroring Jung's interpretation of this alchemic term, the Dust Dwellers describe a cosmic unity that encompasses all of life. I discuss depictions of the unus mundus across the Dust Dwellers' work and outline other implications of this central philosophic presupposition. Ultimately, I conclude that their environmental philosophy, along with other attributes, permits and even encourages scholars to approach these writers as a distinct group of American modernists. / Master of Arts / In this paper, I explore the environmental philosophy of three Californian modernists, who I have collectively named the Dust Dwellers: John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers, and Jack London. I argue that these writers participated in a broader modernist response to the Enlightenment's failed pursuit of utopia. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the Dust Dwellers' response was distinctly informed by their American identity. They engaged modernist themes of decay as applied to the American frontier. Specifically, they recognized that America had failed to transform into a new Garden of Eden. Investigating the negative effects of industrial civilization, the Dust Dwellers searched for a philosophy that could create harmony between humanity and nature. I argue that their environmental philosophy displays intellectual and creative congruencies that can be traced to the common influence of twentieth-century psychoanalyst Carl Jung. The foundational concept of the Dust Dwellers' environmental philosophy parallels the Jungian concept of the unus mundus. Mirroring Jung's interpretation of this alchemic term, the Dust Dwellers describe a cosmic unity that encompasses all of life. I discuss depictions of the unus mundus across the Dust Dwellers' work and outline other implications of this central philosophic presupposition. Ultimately, I conclude that their environmental philosophy, along with other attributes, permits and even encourages scholars to approach these writers as a distinct group of American modernists.

Le présent mémoire porte sur le rôle de Steinbeck en tant qu'inteIlectuel libéral de gauche au cours de la dernière décennie de sa vie, soit les années 1960. Steinbeck est un écrivain américain qui vantait la ténacité et le courage du «petit peuple», ces opprimés économiques et sociaux, dans des écrits des années 1930, comme The Grapes of Wrath. Après avoir préalablement défini Steinbeck comme un intellectuel du «New Deal» durant la crise économique des années 1930 et avoir traité de ses actions et de ses écrits dans la période de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, puis dans la période de l'après-guerre, ce mémoire s'étend sur le rôle de Steinbeck dans les années 1960. L'originalité de cette étude réside dans le fait que nous avons ciblé une période moins connue de Steinbeck, car celle-ci est vue comme un déclin dans la carrière de l'écrivain par plusieurs critiques. En effet, notre recherche nous a amené à remettre en question la thèse de nombreux critiques qui décrivent Steinbeck comme un néo-conservateur ou un conformiste désengagé vers la fin de sa vie. Contrairement à cette idée répandue, nous montrons que Steinbeck ne doit aucunement être mis de côté après 1960. Non seulement est-il resté toujours très actif au cours de cette période, sinon plus qu'avant, mais à l'aide de ses écrits et ses interventions en politique, Steinbeck a eu un impact sans précédent quant à la poursuite du libéralisme au cours de cette décennie. D'après nous, ce lauréat du prix Nobel voulait une poursuite du «New Deal», tout comme d'autres libéraux de l'époque. De fait, l'écrivain a joué un rôle majeur dans la dénonciation de l'immoralité qui sévissait dans la nation. Pour y remédier, Steinbeck se rapprocha, comme auparavant, de présidents et soutint leurs réformes. D'après lui, le président était un leader capable de redonner une direction à la nation en crise. De plus, il soutint ardemment le mouvement des droits civiques, bien qu'il ait été hostile au mouvement des jeunes et à la Nouvelle Gauche. Selon Steinbeck, le mouvement noir non violent voulait justement mettre fin au plus grand problème moral du pays, c'est-à-dire l'inégalité raciale. Steinbeck appuyait d'ailleurs de diverses façons des leaders noirs, tel que Martin Luther King, Jr. Comme le président, de par leurs actions héroïques, les Noirs pouvaient redonner un sens moral à la nation. Enfin, il fut un grand partisan d'une lutte anticommuniste dans le monde entier, comme ce fut le cas au Viêt-nam. Toutefois, il n'était aucunement motivé par un anticommunisme aveugle, mais visait plutôt une lutte contre l'immoralité aux États-Unis et la fin de la domination des communistes au Viêt-nam grâce à l'envoi de soldats courageux. Bref, ce grand intérêt de sa part pour améliorer la vie de nombreux Américains et aussi d'opprimés à l'extérieur du pays montre que l'historiographie de Steinbeck donnait, jusqu'à présent, une fausse réalité à propos de l'écrivain. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Guerre du Viêt-Nam, Intellectuels libéraux, John F. Kennedy, John Steinbeck, Lyndon B. Johnson, Mouvements sociaux, «New Deal».

Orientador: Carlos Alberto Sampaio Barbosa / Banca: Mariana Martins Villaça / Banca: Carlos Eduardo Jordão Machado / Resumo: Temos no filme Viva Zapata! (1952) o eixo central desta pesquisa, através da qual buscamos iluminar as relações entre cinema, cultura e política norte-americana dos anos cinqüenta, além de questionar como este cinema forma uma visão sobre o outro - nesse caso, os mexicanos. Produzido e lançado nos Estados Unidos em meio ao macartismo - oposição e perseguição aos comunistas, decorrente da Guerra Fria - é dirigido pelo cineasta Elia Kazan e tem como roteirista John Steinbeck, importante romancista norte-americano. Suas temáticas dialogam com a cultura e a política da época, os quais buscamos resgatar através deste estudo. Ainda, sendo um filme norte-americano sobre o México, nos possibilita questionar como este país e seu povo são representados - e ir além, analisando como se formam as visões dos outros no imaginário norte-americano, visão esta que se reflete através de manifestações culturais, como o cinema / Abstract: The film Viva Zapata! (1952) is the central axis of the present study, through which we tried to highlight the relationships among North American cinema, culture and politics in the 1950s, as well as to question how this cinema forms the view about the other - in this case, the Mexicans. Produced and launched in the United States during McCarthyism - opposition and persecution to communists due to Cold War -, that film was directed by the filmmaker Elia Kazan and had as writer John Steinbeck, an important North American novelist. Its themes dialogue with the culture and the politics of that period, which we tried to rescue through this study. In addition, it is a North-American film about Mexico, which allows us to question how this country and its people are represented - as well as to analyze how the view about the others is formed in the North American imagination, since this view is reflected through cultural manifestations such as cinema / Mestre

The paper aims to investigate the failure of the American Dream in the novel The Grapes of Wrath and the factors that affect it. Thus, the thesis of the paper is that it is the classes and castes of Californian that prevent the Joad family from fulfilling the American Dream. The thesis will be discussed from four focal points of the American Dream: Freedom, Equality, Individualism and Family and Ideal Home. The novel takes place during the Great Depression, a time when many Americans were homeless and unemployed. An attempt will be made to define the American Dream and give a background to it. Furthermore, the binary pair of “self” and “other” will be used as an instrument of analysis.

There is no greater work of literature, perhaps, than the Bible. The Bible has shaped and influenced more literature, art, and culture than any other work in our time. The effects of the Bible’s words are still woven into modern literature today, illustrating that the Bible’s themes, allegories, parables, fables, metaphors, and characters are things that we humans are unable to depart far from even many decades later. One of the very first stories in the Bible, found at the beginning in Genesis, tells of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve’s depiction as the first kind of our species and the story of their creation to their Fall is one transformative story that humans seem destined to repeat. This cycle of falling is rampant in American literature, from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first century, appearing in works by prominent authors such as R. W. B. Lewis, Leo Marx, and John Steinbeck. Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden wrestles heavily with both biblical themes and metaphors and acts as a biblical framework for the Fall narrative and the book of Genesis. This thesis seeks to examine the Fall as a conceptual metaphor for American literature and thinking through John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and attempts to explain why literature, and humans, keep endlessly returning to the Fall.

This thesis focuses on the theme of the journey and the changes that occur in the socio-historical context of the Great Depression as well as in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The thesis is an expository piece on road literature, its features and how the chosen novel has earned its rightful place in the American oeuvre, specifically that of road literature. The thesis is separated into two major parts. The former part provides the reader with a socio- historical context of the Great Depression as well as a background on the historical patterns of the 'journey' in America and how these two aspects are interrelated in the context of this thesis. The latter part constitutes the analysis of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by including the authorial relationship to the novel and the many aspects of the novel as studied through the scope of road literature. This part is further expanded by a close-up analysis of the changes in identity of characters in The Grapes of Wrath. The primary focus is on the notion of change and how it is connected to the notion of the road, including how the human being stands between these notions and is transformed in the process. Keywords: change, mobility, flight, escape, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, American Dream, hope, depression, 1930s, Great...