斯坦贝克文学风格的几个特点

斯坦贝克文学风格的几个特点Some Features of Steinbeck’s Literary Style
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Table of Contents Introduction (1)
Chapter 1 the Subjective and Objective Factors and Aesthetic Basis of Steinbeck's Novels (2)
1.1 The Literary Edification of Good Family (2)
1.2 Rich Experiences of Steinbeck’ Life (4)
1.3 The Great Humanistic Care of John Steinbeck (6)
1.4 Innovative Consciousness (8)
Chapter 2 John Steinbeck's Novels' Pursuits of Aesthetic (10)
2.1 Epic-styled Themes (10)
2.2 Non-teleological Method (11)
2.3 Typical Characters (11)
Chapter3 Aesthetic Techniques of John Steinbeck's Novels (13)
3.1Effective Contrasts (13)
3.2 Poetic Languages (13)
3.3 Implicit Endings (14)
Conclusion (16)
Bibliography (18)
斯坦贝克文学风格的几个特点
摘要:作为一位在世界文坛上有广泛影响的作家，毫无疑问, 我认为斯坦贝克不懈追求和奋斗精神，贯穿其四十余年的全部创作活动之中，体现在作家创作的每一部成功以及不太成功的作品之中。

大半个世纪对斯坦贝克小说的研究充满了争议，直到今天分歧仍然很大。

本来，文学批评见仁见智，不足为奇，可以说是不可避免的。

但是，这里夹杂着许多文学的因素，非文学的因素，同时也带有许多误解的成分，所以不能客观实事求是地对待作家及他的作品。

特别是对于像斯坦贝克这种前后创作风格变化颇大的作家，如果根据某一部作品或某一时期的作品就判断或衡量该作家整个创作的美学价值跟文学特点，必然会失之偏颇。

本文通过对斯坦贝克小说特点较为全面而深入的探讨，力图向读者揭示斯坦贝克小说从技巧到内涵上的独特魅力，对斯坦贝克小说的文学特点给予较为客观的揭示与分析。

约翰·斯坦贝克的许多作品以美国的土地和人民为题材。

他替穷苦人说话，为被压迫者申辩。

他的小说刻划了富于同情心和人情味的真实可信的人物形象，展现了他们生活时世的广阔壮丽的图景。

关键词：斯坦贝克，美学价值，小说，人物形象，文学特点
Some Features of Steinbeck’s Literary Style
Abstract：As an influential writer in the literary. I'm sure Steinbeck had worked very hard in his writing career for forty years. This spirit can be reflected in his every work, successful or not. The research on Steinbeck's novels is full of controversy for over half a century until today. It is no surprise that literary artist have different opinions. This situation is complicated in which involves many elements of literature and non-literary factors, even a lot of misunderstanding. As a result, the writer and his works did not receive objective and realistic treatment that will be biased to determine the literary characteristics of aesthetic value. Especially for Steinbeck, whose writing style changed greatly, it is not fair to just and decide the aesthetic value and literary feature according to one specific work or work in one specific period. This thesis attempts to explore the features of Steinbeck's works deeply and through analysis of his writing techniques and contents. John Steinbeck's many works are about the land and the people of the United States. He spoke for the poor people, and defend foe the oppressed. In his novel he depicts compassionate and humane authentic characters, demonstrating their lives in the magnificent picture in the world wide.
Key words: Steinbeck, aesthetic value, novel, characters, the literary characteristics of aesthetic value
Introduction
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) is a prolific and versatile writer, he has written over thirty books which spread over a wide spectrum. The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Tortilla Flat (1935), Of Mice and Men (1937), and East of Eden(1952)，and even some of his less known books have been widely read by the general public both at home and abroad. His works include novels, short stories, plays and journals. Although the basic setting for most of his works is in California, his home state, the topics in his writing range from culture, politics, war and science to society itself. He was awarded various honors, including Pulitzer Prize (1940), and Nobel Prize (1962). In the 1960s, literary critics began to focus on Steinbeck's works and their interest in Stein beck grew as time went on. As a result, the International John Steinbeck Society and Stein beck quarterly were set up. Till now, Steinbeck's novels have been translated into 33 languages and The Grapes of Wrath was translated into Chinese as early as in 1943.Nowadays, all his important saga novels, novelettes and short stories have Chinese versions (no collected edition in China yet).
Chapter One the Subjective and Objective Factors and Aesthetic
Basis of Steinbeck's Novel
1.1 The Literary Edification of Good Family
"The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate manpower capacity for greatness of heart and spirit-for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has neither dedication nor any membership in literature". This is what John Steinbeck said when he received the Nobel Prize in 1962.
It seems that Steinbeck's being famous is incredible. But, if we study further, we'll find that it is not accidental for Steinbeck to acquire such splendid accomplishments. It has its inevitable subjective and objective, factors. In this chapter, we will try to trace the aesthetic origins of Steinbeck's novels from the following aspects, i.e. good family literary edification, rich life experiences, great humanistic care, profound local complex and strong innovative consciousness.
Steinbeck's f ather is a county treasurer and his mother is a teacher. His mother’s interest in literature deeply affects her children. Steinbeck also inherits the love for Ancient Greek and Roman classic works from his mother. Behind his parents' direct influence is the indirect influence of his grandfather, Samuel Hamilton. Though when this old man died in 1904, Steinbeck was still an innocent child, his affection for "good books" deeply affected all his children and grandchildren.
The good family atmosphere of reveling in books could be traced clearly back in his later literary magnum opus "East of Eden". What has made little Steinbeck more rejoiced is the fact that this scholarly family has a library of abundant collected books, in which there house history books, novels of the 19th century, children's adventures and religious literary books. Just as what Steinbeck's Sister Elisabeth recalled, "In Steinbeck's house there were plenty of books which were within our
reach." "We could choose the books freely and no one compelled us to do so, regardless of approval or disapproval.” (Demotte, 1984:12)
The little Steinbeck was so crazy in reading books that he recalled, "Some books, such as Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821一1881),Madame Bovary(Gustavo Flaubert, 1821一1880) and The Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy, 1840-1928) are much truer than the things I've experienced. I have read these books when I was very young, but I didn't regard them as books, but as the things that were happening around me." The influence of the family literary edification during his boyhood on Steinbeck's creation can be found here and there in his works. In Steinbeck's later novels, his achieved grand themes, symbolic meanings and poetic languages have extraordinary connections with this book. In the preface to his novel Tortilla Flat, Steinbeck writes that, "For Danny's house was not unlike the Round Table and Danny's friends were not unlike the knights of it."(Steinbeck, 1935:7) The Bible is not only a religious classic, but also an ancient literary classic, which has incomparable influence on Steinbeck's creations. Many titles of the works created by Steinbeck are derived from the Bible. East of Eden is named after the story of Abel and Cain in the Garden of Eden. In his masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck not only gives its name after the connotative meanings of "Grapes" in The Bible, but also derives rich nutrition from the stories of The Bible to moisten his own creations. When people see the picture of farmer Tom's whole family crowded in a jalopy transferring to the West from Oklahoma after bankrupting, they can't help thinking of the story of Noah's Ark in The Bible. The milk of the Bible permeates into most works of Steinbeck.
Shakespeare is one of the greatest playwrights and poets in the world, and his 37 plays and 154 sonnets have already become the precious gems in literary world. In those letters to friends, Steinbeck often speaks of Shakespeare and the, nutrition he has absorbed, from Shakespeare's works. If we further review Steinbeck's works, we'll find that the grand themes, poetic languages and the mixed experiments of multiple artificial forms, techniques and styles that he has pursued during his whole life all have a close relationship with Shakespeare's deep influence.
In a word, the family literary edification is the irreplaceable precondition and basis of Steinbeck's later literary success.
1.2 Rich Experiences of Steinbeck’ life
The reason why Steinbeck could make so remarkable achievements is due to his close contact with life and rich life experiences, which have given him dryness creative sources, hearty creative inspirations and enthusiasms.
Steinbeck was born in the countryside of California. When he was young, he had a long-term contact with cattle farmers, farm hands, fisher folks and towns' folks, so he was very familiar with the sceneries of his hometown and knew well of the rough guys. Between 1919 and 1924, he studied marine biology at Stanford University, but did not take a degree because he’ always planned to be a writer. Several of his early poems and short stories appeared in the university publications. During those five years, he often left off his studies and made a living by himself. In 1925, he went to New Y ork, intending for literary creations. Making unsuccessful attempts to publish stories, he worked both as a newspaper reporter and a laborer, and returned to California in 1927. In California he worked as a ranch hand, a fruit picker, a pharmacist, a land surveyor, a sailor, and a house watchman successively. It is the long-term close life contact with the lower lives that has made him take the rough guys' lives as his creative themes. As he becomes famous and walks into the upper society, Steinbeck still insists on going deep into the rough guys' lives to gather news and do some investigations, keeping in close contact with common people and the society.
We all know that beauty is life. Anything that reveals life or makes us think of life is beautiful. Before he wrote The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck has published two farm workers' novels, In Dubious Battle and Of Mice and Men. While he was writing these two novels, he found many new problems in the close contact with the farm workers. "By 1935, the great wave of dust bowl migration was displacing many, though by no means all of the migrants, non-white laborers in California fields. Before writing The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck has studied and experienced the
difficult life of the Dust Bowl migrants in California intensely over a period of time. The Dust Bowl days, also known as "Dirty Thirties", lasts about a decade.
In the course of composing the novel, Steinbeck wrote to Elizabeth Otis, admitting that there was a "difficulty" for him, since "I am trying to write history while it. Is happening and I do not want to be wrong." (Fang, 2000:81) This is the kind of personal emotional impact that Steinbeck seeks to achieve in his work in order to influence public opinion. To a large extent, it enables Steinbeck to gain the authority of representing history and power. After 5 months' hard working, an epic-styled novel "The Grapes of Wrath" emerged in the world. Commenting on his own work, Steinbeck says, "I have set down what a large section of our people are doing and wanting, and symbolically what all people are doing and wanting."(Ibid. 81) In this respect, The Grapes of Wrath is not merely a testimony to the particular history of 1930s' America, but itself part of it. Furthermore, it is a revelation of all human experience as well.
Whenever the Great Depression (1929-1939) is mentioned, people couldn't help referring to Steinbeck, because Steinbeck is always regarded as one of representative writers of that period. The whole 1930s is the unbearable years in American history. The Grapes of Wrath is the representative fiction of that period, which is often called by some critics "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of the Great Depression. It is due to Steinbeck's own real experience in that period that has made him write such a great book.
Immediately after the publication of The Grapes of Wrath, it aroused a national dispute, the focus of which was on the authenticity of the novel's theme. Nearly two months later, a publishing company published a new book named The Grapes of Joy, in which it describes how a family receive extensive cares and live a happy life after they migrates to California. Anthony West, in his New Statesman review, was uncompromisingly hostile in his rejection of the book. It was, he wrote, "a ho rrible story." and it had "great defects as a novel." (West, 1939: 404-405) Some councilman of Okalahoma criticized in the Congress that Steinbeck had "distorted the reality and the book was a complete fabricate story". The broadcasting station also released two different views. The film company carried out a spot investigation before screening
the film and finally found that the plight of the migrants were much more serious than what Steinbeck had described in his book. (Lisca, 1958: 149,155) In 1940, Mrs. Roosevelt visited the migrants' camps in person and said, "I always think this book isn't exaggerating." President Roosevelt also interviewed Steinbeck, after which the American government began the investigation of the farm workers' lives and working conditions. Just imagine that if Steinbeck only gets some information from others, or only skims over the surface without going deep into the real life, it is impossible for him to produce such an influential historical great work as The Grapes of Wrath. Furthermore he would have lost all his reputations because of falsification.
Steinbeck knows well that as a writer, it is important to keep in close contact with the people on the land. All these experiences are added fuels to his imagination, without which, Steinbeck feels all the things would be abstract, isolated and sterile. Not long after finishing his last novel, 58-year-old Steinbeck, accompanied by his beloved dog, drove a truck alone to make an on-the-spot investigation throughout America. His purpose of doing that is to get new "fuels" and to regain his youth.
Seeing through Steinbeck's whole life, we can say that Steinbeck is deeply rooted in the soils of life and in return the life moistens his creations.
1.3 The Great Humanistic Care of John Steinbeck
Steinbeck was born in the countryside of America and he had intimate contacts and natural connections with the rough guys. Before he became famous, he was engaged in businesses as a carpenter, a farmer, and a porter and so on, and lived with the working people day and night. After becoming famous, he still kept in close contact with the rough guys while he was engaged in writing and working as a journalist. In 1930s, America experienced serious economic crisis, during which the landlords took the chance of taking back the leased lands and sold them to banks and agricultural industrialists. Under the ruthless shoving of the tractors and the cruel repressions of local policemen, crowds of farmers' houses were destroyed and their lands were lost. They had to leave their native places and moved a long way to the West, hoping to find a job to support their families, but only found them in a more
woeful predicament. Steinbeck discerned this catastrophe of human world and exclaimed loudly, "About 5,000 families are starving to death, actually not starving, but starving to death ... I'm concerned about this matter at the very beginning, so I must go there to see the scene with my own eyes, to see what I can do to help crackdown these murderers ... After I've done that those old guys of farmers group would peel off the skin of me."(Wellston, 158) In 1952, when he was interviewed by the broadcasting station of VOA, he said, "While I was writing The Grapes of Wrath, my heart was full of hatred for those people who tyrannize others." (DeMott, 1989) Steinbeck poured his anger into his pen, forming lines and lines of furious "bill of complaints":
And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate-died of malnutrition-because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.
The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze, and in the eyes of the people there is the failure, and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.(Steinbeck, 1939:238)
After the publication of The Grapes of Wrath, the problem of "farm workers" immediately attracted the attention of the whole country. On one side, this book
aroused the panics and rages of those who stood for the agricultural capitalists' interests. They spared no efforts to assault the untruthfulness of the book and it was listed as the "forbidden book" by three states. The American Federal Bureau of Investigation even regarded Steinbeck as the main investigated target. On the other side, this book was warmly received by many readers, and gained the supports of some progressive forces and some wise persons in the government such as Mrs. Roosevelt. In 1962, when Steinbeck was standing on the Nobel Prize stage for literature, he proclaimed to the whole world that it was the writer's responsibility to disclose those painful mistakes and failures, to save people from the dull and dangerous nightmares, and to make them exposed under the light of the day. It is due to his great humanistic care and high sense of responsibility that Steinbeck has written many famous novels such as In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Man, The Pearl and so on. He presents the common people's gory tribulations before the world, and carries out his promise of being the prolocutor for the poor through his practical actions. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck proclaims the following ideas by recurring to Tom Joad, hero of the novel, "Then I'll be all around' in the dark. I'll be ever where-wherever you look……An' when our folks eat the stuff they r aise an' live in the houses they build-why, I'll be there. "(Steinbeck, 1939:289)
From the above analysis we can say that it is Steinbeck's great humanistic care for rough guys that have made him -concern much with the poor and produce many magnificent epic-styled works as The Grapes of Wrath.
1.4 Innovative Consciousness
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he says, “…If a writer doesn't firmly believe humans can reach perfection, he will not be qualified for a writer, and will have no place in the literary world..." (Zhu, 1994:582) Steinbeck fulfills his views on creation through his continuously innovated practice.
According to different subjects, In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Man, and The
Grapes of Wrath are classified as "Farm Workers Trilogy". But when we read this "trilogy", we find that there are no feelings of having seen them before or similar to some other novels regardless of their plots, scenes or characters. Actually, we just feel that it is like entering a beautiful garden, where the innovative charms of Steinbeck's novels are.
Chapter Two John Steinbeck's Novels' Pursuits of Aesthetic
2.1 Epic-styled Themes
To convert all those conditions and basis into successful works, the writer must have made various hard efforts and explorations in aesthetic pursuits. In this chapter, we will try to discuss Steinbeck's aesthetic pursuits from the following aspects, i.e. epic-styled themes, imperishable beliefs, Non-teleological methods and typical characters.
The novel The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most enduring works of fiction by any American author. "Written during the Great Depression, it describes a typical story of that time, the migration of a dispossessed family from the Dust Bowl Oklahoma to California." (Li, 2000:60) It tells a specific story of the Joad family, featuring the hardship and oppression suffered by migrant laborers during the Great Depression. It is an explicitly political statement that champions collective action by the lower classes and chastises corporate and banking elites for shortsighted policies meant to maximize profit while forcing farmers into destitution and even starvation. The story of the Joads is an epitome of all the migrants. They are enhanced in their consciousness through the experiences of their exodus. Without The Grapes of Wrath, American literary history will regrettably lack such kind of resplendent book.
Great epics are born of grand themes, and great epics can only be produced by upright, responsible and talented writers who have paid much attention to the activity, taken part in the activity and understood the activity intensively. From the above reviews, we can see clearly that Steinbeck has a long-term and clinging pursuit for the epic-styled themes and that Steinbeck can create epic-styled works is not accidental, but inevitable.
2.2 Non-teleological Method
The Theory of Non-teleology was once very popular among western literary writers. Its claims are close to naturalism and it holds that what the thing really is less important than the thing's existing. Steinbeck once declared that he approved of and carried out this theory in his literary creations and the world of critics had paid much attention to it. They thought what Steinbeck concerned was how the thing happened, but not why it happened. Steinbeck admitted that he recorded a true matter in the novel of Snakes, but he didn't know what that matter really meant. He was attracted by the Theory of Non-teleology. According to this theory, he writes Of Mice and Men, a naturalistic fable-like novel, which is originally titled as "Something That Happened". (French, 1995:81-82) Under this Theory, his series of novels, including the "Farm Workers Trilogy" are regarded as naturalistic works by the critics and Steinbeck is treated as a naturalistic writer.
In 1939, just before the publication of The Grapes of Wrath, it was said that a bookstore keeper had been examined by the FBI. In Sancatos City, Steinbeck's name was reported to the local- police office. Under such kind of giant white shadow, Steinbeck's intention was obvious to declare his Theory of Non-teleology in literary creations. He is just to show that his .writing is beyond utilitarianism, and he has no political intention at all.
Facts prove that Steinbeck's works are seemingly purposeless and naturalistic, but behind the purposelessness, there exists certain purposefulness, which has moved millions of readers and made his works become the precious gems in American and world literary treasury.
2.3 Typical Characters
When Edmund Wilson, an American critic, relates to some animals often appear in Steinbeck's works, such as rabbits, dogs, turtles and mice, he criticizes, "Mr. Steinbeck's novels always wrote about some immature characters of or close to animals' level... What Steinbeck did was not to improve the animals to the level of humans, but lower the humans to the level of animals... Why Steinbeck's characters
were always not that successful? I think it was due to his this kind of inclination of animalization." (Lisca, 1958:6) The other is the simplification of his character depiction. Some other critics think that "Steinbeck is not like Faulkner, who can excavate characters' ideological activities, and he can not disclose the characters' inner world through their conversations and opinion, what plays the decisive role in his creations is the theme of the novel. Real matters, compact plot arrangements, characters' diathesis requirements impel the writer to adopt this kind of method and style.
To judge whether this method is successful or not, we can't simply decide from the exterior or interior characters' depictions. We should make sure whether the depicted characters are suitable to the theme of the novel and whether they have vivid personalities. We should not evaluate a writer's achievements only from his methods and types of the character depiction. Actually, Steinbeck has depicted many characters from the interior in East of Eden and The Winter of Our Discontent, showing that Steinbeck could not only create some "flat characters", but also some unforgettable "rounded characters".
Chapter Three Aesthetic Techniques of John Steinbeck's Novels
3.1 Effective Contrasts
As one of the famous writers in the literary world, Steinbeck is distinctly unique from other American novelists in the application of aesthetic techniques between lines. Through studying Steinbeck's novels, we find that why Steinbeck's novels have been well-received among the general public is mainly due to his being able to catch the important historical events incisively and reflect these events objectively. In addition, through applying some useful artistic techniques, Steinbeck not only makes his novels truly reflect the real life, but also touch people's aesthetic sentiments and enlighten people's thinking deeply. In this chapter, we'll discuss the artistic techniques respectively.
Steinbeck is skilled at making and applying various contrasts. In his novels, the technique of contrasts is widely and ingeniously used, which complements with each other while opposing to each other. The application of mutual comparison and sharp contrast between those two relative objects has made the novels' themes more profound, the structures more prolific, the images of the characters more vivid, the scenes more touching and the aesthetic effects more prominent. In Steinbeck's novels, we can see various contrasts, such as the contrast between the righteous and the evil, the contrast between, beauty, tragedy, ugliness and comedy, the contrast between wisdom and stupidity, the contrast and the contrast between feelings and scenes.
The conflict between the good and the evil is the consistent theme of Steinbeck's novels, while the contrast between the righteous and the evil is the keynote of his works. The technique of contrast is applied in many aspects, which seems more prominent in East of Eden.
3.2 Poetic Languages
Poetic language is one of the most important aesthetic characteristics of Steinbeck's novels. The poem-quality seems to have been melted in his blood and it has made him capable of creating beautiful narrative and lyric language freely.。