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Self-Alienating Characters in the Fiction of John

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Self-Alienating Characters in the Fiction of John SELF-ALIENATING CHARACTERS IN THE FICTION OF JOHN STEINBECK DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Barbara Albrecht McDaniel Denton, Texas May, 1974 McDaniel, Barbara Albrecht, Self-Alienatin Characters in the Fiction of John Steinbeck. Doctor of Philosophy (English), May, 1974, 252 pp., bibliography, 53 titles. The primary purpose of this study is to show that John Steinbeck's concern with alienation is pervasive and consistent from the beginning of his career as a writer until the end. The pervasiveness of his concern with alien- ation is demonstrated by examining his two early collections of short stories and by showing how alienated characters in these stories resemble alienated characters in all the author's major works of fiction. Since much confusion surrounds the meaning of the word "alienation," it is necessary to begin with a definition of "alienation" as it is used to discuss Steinbeck. An alien- ated character in Steinbeck's fiction is a person who is separated from another person, group of persons, society, or the person's ideal self. This study is concerned with characters who create their own alienation rather than with those who are merely helpless victims. Steinbeck was interested in alienation as a human ex- perience and not as a philosophic concept. He therefore offers more insight into patterns of alienation as it is experienced than into its ultimate causes. The patterns of alienation he establishes in the stories in The Pastures of Heaven (1932) derive from conflicts which keep charac- ters estranged from themselves and from others. These individuals are turned inward, yet controlled by external forces. To maintain confidence in their importance as human beings, they either escape frightening responsibili- ty by letting other persons dominate them, or they try to prove that they are unique. Whether they bolster their self-esteem through role-playing, controlling people or things, following rituals, or creating myths, these alienated characters create fantasies to satisfy their egos. In The Long; ValLe (1938) these patterns are repeated and a pattern based upon substituting violence for intimacy emerges as a major one. Steinbeck seems to see violence as a point on a vicious circle that goes from alienation to pain to aggression and violence and back to alienation. In East of Eden and the journal he kept while writing this novel, Steinbeck pointedly states his belief that rejection (which causes alienation) is the great motivating force in the history of mankind and the great theme of all literature. A comparison of Steinbeck's first hero in !Cp of Gold (1929) with his last in The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) shows the continuity of alienation as Steinbeck's major theme. Other novels are not discussed in detail in this study if they emphasize social rather than personal alienation, for their characters are too flat to be called self-alienating. Those novels which most clearly iterate the patterns of alienation discernible in the early short story collections are discussed at length. Steinbeck's literary reputation in the United States has largely grown out of the immense popularity of The Grgpe~s of Wrath, which is widely believed to express the core of Steinbeck's moral vision. This study implies that The Grapes of Wrath is atypical, that Steinbeck's overriding preoccupation is with personal and private forms of aliena- tion, rather than with the external, social forms intrinsic to his most famous work. Steinbeck does not cry for brotherhood; he cries in pain. Copyright by Barbara Albrecht McDaniel 1974 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. A DEFINITION OF "ALIENATION" AS IT APPLIES TO THE FICTION OF JOHN STEINBECK . .* . 1 II. PATTERNS OF ALIENATION IN THE PASTURES OF HEAVEN . a . a 13 III. PATTERNS OF ALIENATION IN THE LONG VALLEY AND SOME CORRESPONDENCES IN SELECTED NOVELS .9.0.9.*.*.4.*.0 .*.*.0.0.0.*.* .. 108 IV. PATTERNS OF ALIENATION IN NOVELS BY STEINBECK . 169 V. THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE THEME OF ALIENATION TO STEINBECK'S LITERARY REPUTATION . 239 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 249 CHAPTER I A DEFINITION OF "ALIENATION" AS IT APPLIES TO THE FICTION OF JOHN STEINBECK Many critics believe that the novel The Grapes of Wrath embodies John Steinbeck's characteristic vision of the human condition. However, in depicting a specific social problem and in unambiguously celebrating the broth- erhood of man, The Grapes of Wrath is almost unique in Steinbeck's fiction. Steinbeck himself felt that East of Eden was his most important novel and that its theme of rejection and consequent alienation was the theme most important to mankind,2 The primary purpose of this study is to show that Steinbeck's concern with alienation is pervasive and consistent from the beginning of his career as a writer until the end. The pervasiveness of this concern will be demonstrated by examining the extraordinary short stories which mark the beginning of Steinbeck's career and by showing how these stories anticipate all his major works of fiction. If this study helps to overcome some critical cliches about Steinbeck as simply a regional or social novelist, it will have achieved another goal. 2 Besides the critics who overemphasize the regional aspects of Steinbeck's fiction, there are those whose at- tention to Steinbeck's biological view of man has led them away from his humanistic concerns. Steinbeck's study of biology at Stanford University, his participation in a research expedition, and his friendship with the marine biologist Edward F. Ricketts correlate with his interest in the human race. Like Norris, Dreiser, and Jack London, Steinbeck uses analogues between animals and human beings to enhance observations that are more social and psycho- logical than biological. He can describe the struggle for survival in a tide pool with scientific detachment, but human struggles evoke his compassion. Steinbeck's con- tinual concern with man's adaptation to existence finds its strongest expression in his final novel, The Winter of Our Discontent, a novel not about brotherhood or the function of the human species, but about how an individual, Ethan Hawley, confronts overwhelming alienation. But before Hawley's condition, or any other, can be described as "alienation," the term must be defined. In Alienation (1971) Richard Schacht tries to sort out the confusion surrounding the word.3 After determining that there is neither a universal meaning for this word, nor a general meaning with different aspects, Schacht examines the differences in its applications by influential phi- losophers, psychologists, and sociologists. All that w 3 Schacht can find in common among the various uses is that the term implies some sort of separation. He maintains that one should not use it today at all without explaining one's meaning. Schacht finds important differences of opinion over whether "alienation" implies discontent and awareness in those alienated, whether a loss has to occur, and whether the term has to be evaluative or polemic. He finds that the phenomena with which "alienation" is associated may be viewed favorably, unfavorably, or neutrally. It may or may not be that an individual is responsible for self-alienation that people can escape alienation; or that an opposite con- dition is an improvement. Schacht also discovers departures from the popular view that "alienation" means "loss," that it signifies a change from a previous condition. In fact, alienation may consist entirely of a feeling that something is alien or that someone is separated; that is, "alienation" might reflect a subjective state of mind relating to a con- dition which may or may not actually exist. Schacht does not say, as Walter Kaufmann does (in the introductory essay to Schacht's book), that men are not alienated unless they perceive their alienation, for there are instances of both uses of the term. Unlike Schacht, Kaufmann concerns himself with more than the applications of the word "alienation": Kaufmann is interested in the concepts it represents, the phenomena 4 which sometimes have been called "alienations" since the nineteenth century, but which have existed whether this word or any other word has been applied to them. He differs, therefore, from writers who believe that alienation is a uniquely modern condition: he believes that their view is historically blind. Kaufmann acknowledges a further dif- ference from some other writers when he asserts that "al- ienation" implies interaction between two agents, one agent who is alienated, and another from whom the former is al- ienated. Kaufmann says that the second aspect cannot be missing because "'Alienation' is an elliptical term that requires completion in two directions."4 In Kaufmann's terminology an alienated agent in Stein- beck's fiction is a character who is separated from another person, a group of persons, society, or the person's ideal self. The meaning of "alienation" in this study derives from Steinbeck's emphasis upon the importance of human love. He thinks that a natural impulse to love is often blocked by such obstacles as selfishness, pride, fear, or lust for property. Steinbeck's happiest characters are those he sees as the most natural; they are skillful and flexible . In their relations with others, they are spontaneous, open, and unrestrained. Least affected by alienation because they know themselves best, they accept their limitations and they accept alienation as a condition of life. Therefore they do 5 not need the kinds of defenses which prevent communion with others. Steinbeck's characters may not perceive their aliena- tion, nor does their alienation necessarily reflect a change from another condition. This study will emphasize situa- tions in which Steinbeck's characters create their own alienation rather than situations in which alienation bene- fits them or in which they are merely helpless victims.
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