Uzbekistan state university of world languages english philology faculty

Conclusion

John Steinbeck was exposed to horrifying details of the Great Depression early on in his career as a journalist and war correspondent. These events helped shape his point of view on the economic crisis and served as a major turning point in his literary career. It was his great attention to detail and his need to fully understand the human being that made his novels the success that they turned out to be, and through them he could let his voice out to be heard by the public. It is through his characters that we can fully understand how horrid the situations that people had to endure were. His characters were also used to show his different opinions on the social classes. The upper class would generally be described as being oppressing and free of all morals while the lower class was being taken advantage of in the novels. In The Winter of Our Discontent we find out through the main character that to gain some success in the world and achieve social mobility they first had to ignore all their principles and eventually become corrupt and evil like the rest of them. Furthermore, Steinbeck introduces to us the idea of the Real versus the fantasy worlds. The fantasy world is usually accessible to the characters either through a dream or as an actual place where they can feel safe. It is with the coexistence of these two worlds that Steinbeck can hope to achieve the biggest results of his social reforming, as they show us that it is not enough to dream about something. To change the community it had to happen in the real world. George sees his dreams shatter before his eyes and gives up. Ethan Hawley is on the verge of ending his life when he sees the glimmer of hope before him and realizes that cannot let his daughter down. That was a part of what Steinbeck wanted his readers to see. Even though things seemed dark and depressing and it was easier to live in a dream world, there was still hope in the real one. He had the upmost believe in man, but was also vary that man's greatest hazard was man himself. If he could change that man by steering him in the right direction and giving him hope, changes in the community could be made. His characters lived through the same events as the people of the nation did. They underwent the Great Depression and were oppressed, but they fought back. Steinbeck's works were extremely important to the period. His characters were representations of the different social groups which meant that all of his readers could find someone to identify with. His stories were so detailed that they helped put a spark into the hearts of the nation and would also serve as a foundation for future artists to carry on his messages. Artists like Woody Guthrie had a venue to get their voices out thanks to Steinbeck, and future generations will have the same opportunity.