John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salina, California, United States, into a middle-class family, his father John Ernst Steinbeck was an accountant and his mother Oliver was a teacher.
Growing up in California and studying literature and creative writing at Stanford University, Steinbeck did not complete his degree in college and chose to leave school to pursue his career path.
After leaving university, Steinbeck embarked on a range of different jobs, including farm laborers, construction workers, and port workers, experiences that exposed him to the lives of ordinary laborers and provided deep material and inspiration for his future work.
Steinbeck's first novel, The Cup and the Lid, was published in 1929, but it was not until the publication of his work Bujin'er Fishing in 1935 that he began to attract the attention of the literary community. The work depicts the lives of California peasant workers, demonstrating the concern for social justice and humanity common to Steinbeck's work.
In the decades that followed, Steinbeck became known for his depictions of American social problems, including The Grapes of Wrath, Between Man and Mouse, and The Sea of the East. Through his complex and moving stories and authentic characterizations, Steinbeck explores themes of poverty, humanity, social injustice, and human solidarity during the Great Depression.
Steinbeck is adept at creating lifelike scenes and characters through vivid descriptions, and he uses rich details and graphic language to enable readers to feel the environment, emotions and atmosphere in the story immersively.
His skillful use of dialects, slang and specific accents makes the dialogue more vivid and natural, enhancing the interaction and emotional expression between the characters.
Steinbeck's work often deals with social, political, and moral issues, and he explores themes of human nature, social inequality, and class struggle through characters and plots. He skillfully uses metaphors and symbolism, as well as allusions to real-life events, to convey his concern and critique of social issues.
By describing the thoughts, emotions and behaviors of his characters, he reveals their inner world and interactions with the outside world, and his depictions of both primary and secondary characters are very nuanced, giving them unique personalities and backgrounds.
Steinbeck often uses a multi-threaded narrative structure that interweaves the experiences of multiple stories and characters, a narrative technique that creates richer layers and perspectives that allow readers to better understand the complexity and depth of the story as a whole.
His works often depict the lives of poor, marginalized groups and the working class, revealing the roots and consequences of social inequality, and he calls attention to the rights and dignity of marginalized groups in society, advocating changes in social institutions to achieve a more equitable social order.
The characters in Steinbeck's works often face moral dilemmas and inner struggles, showing the coexistence of light and darkness, good and evil in human nature, he deeply recognizes the complexity of human nature, and depicts the various manifestations and struggles of human nature by creating multi-dimensional characters.
The characters in his works often undergo a process of growth and awakening, from the pursuit of personal interests to broader social care, and he calls on people to awaken awareness of social problems and exercise personal responsibility and action to improve social conditions.
Steinbeck pays attention to the interaction between man and nature, believes that the harmony between man and nature is the key to achieving social equality and sustainable development, and his description of the natural environment is often combined with the discussion of social issues, and puts forward the importance of the natural environment to human survival and development. He stressed the value of protecting environmental resources and respecting nature, and warned people of responsibility for destroying natural ecosystems.
Through vivid storylines and complex characters, he shows readers the dilemmas and complexities of social reality, and encourages people to think about social issues and personal responsibilities. His work inspires readers' desire for social improvement and provides insight into the direction in which people think and act.
Known for his critique of social inequality and political issues, Steinbeck's writing explores issues such as class division, poverty, and social injustice in American society, bringing contemporary literature to focus on social issues and inspiring other writers to express concerns and criticisms of social reality in similar ways.
His works present complex and real characters, reveal the contradiction between good and evil in human nature, and stimulate readers to think about human nature and moral choice, and this exploration of human nature and morality continues to this day and has become one of the common themes in contemporary literary works.
Steinbeck often creates a unique sense of place based on specific geographical contexts, and his work depicts landscapes and cultures unique to California and the Midwest, drawing readers' attention to local identity, and this style of writing that presents local characteristics has also influenced works in contemporary literature that explore local and cultural identity.
Steinbeck's works have also become an important object of academic research, widely read and interpreted, and his writing style and focus on social issues have inspired many subsequent writers, and have had a profound impact on the development of American realist literature and social critical literature.
