Ali ANALISIS OF THS PROSE STILS OF JOHN STEINBECK MICHAEL K. CROWLEY A THESIS

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2 Ali ANALISIS OF THS PROSE STILS OF JOHN STEINBECK BÏ MICHAEL K. CROWLEY A THESIS Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the Creighton University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English Omaha, 1967

3 Y PREFACE This thesis grew from an appreciation of the works of John Steinbeck and enthusiasm for n e w methods of objective prose analysis. Since X was not able to locate or find reference to any stylistic analysis of Steinbeck»s works, it seemed natural to do this paper. Dr. Edward P. J. Corbett is responsible for helping me formulate the method of examination. The thesis took shape under his considerate and patient tutelage. H e read and reread -m a n y of the chapters an embarrassing (for me) number of times. The Creighton University Library supplied most of the background material in the areas of rhetoric and stylistic analysis. The critical monographs can be found in the library at the University of Omaha. The five works of Steinbeck used in the paper are all available in paperback editions. 1 must thank m y thesis advisor, Mr. Phillip C. Fenton, for his help in the final weeks. There were others who have been generous with time and understanding. I must m e n tion Miss Dianne Jensen, who aided in the compilation of the endless statistics and figures, and m y wife Joyce, who helped in every way imaginable.

4 vi CONTENTS Page P R E F A C E... LIST OF C H A R T S... v v il Chapter I. INTRODUCTION TO THE METHOD OF A N A L I S I S... 1 H. PASTURES OF H E A V E N III. THE GRAPES OF V J R A T H IV. THE P E A R L V. EAST OF E D E N VI, TRAVELS WITH C H A R L E Y VII. CONCLUDING REMARKS ABOUT JOHN STEINBECK»S PROSE s t i l e... kl APPENDIX A B I B L I O G R A P H Y... 6l

5 *v vii LIST OF CHARTS Chart Page A. LIST OF SPECIFIC POINTS OF C O M P A R I S O N B. COMPARATIVE LENGTH M E A S U R E S C. RELATIONSHIP OF THREE FACETS OF D I C T I O N D. CORRELATION OF SIMPLE SENTENCES AND AVSRAffi SENTENCES P E R P A R A G R A P H... 55

6 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION TO THE METHOD OF ANALYSIS Efforts to establish a base for making valid generalizations about prose style must begin -with the printed page. M e freely assign descriptive adjectives to the writing of any author of whom we are knowledgeable, but such subjectivity only compounds our ignorance. Every analysis of prose style must attempt to objectively answer the question,»how did the author achieve this style?5 In our time we witness increasing manifestations of a scientific approach to our every act. Each year the possibility of avoiding this Scientific Age recedes further. This situation enables perhaps tempts is a better term us to apply scientific principles, if not the machinery, to problems inherent in the study of literature. Whether we use computers or pencils, this temptation to delve into the methods of writers comes largely from the environment we all share. The question n o w has become, "Precisely what statistics can we produce to substantiate our statements about a writer s style? When we are confronted with pages of prose, we must literally analyze the work. Then, in the light of what we find, the generalizations we make are no longer vulnerable, unless we

7 2 fail to make a valid judgment from the statistics we have gleaned. For instance, if we feel a piece of prose has a certain "strength*1 about it, we no longer need wonder if the reason is monosyllabic words or simple sentences or both or neither. An actual count quickly resolves the matter. This does not preclude instances when no reason turns up, because this tabulating of elements only offers a basis upon which we can make judgments and not the judgments themselves. A necessary requirement, I believe, for a stylistic analysis is to examine recognized prose. easily qualify in that respect. The writings of John Steinbeck They have won for h i m the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. He has long been acclaimed a leading American author. Steinbeck himself and h i s works are familiar to many Americans. The man John Steinbeck has been aptly described, at one time or another, as a Californian, a N e w Yorker, a naturalist (both literary and scientific), and a man who loathed publicity. During his life, he was a ranch hand, a sporadic student at Stanford, a construction worker (he helped build the old Madison Square Garden), and a caretaker for a lodge in the Sierras. He claims that Morte d*arthur and the Kina James Bible had more influence on h i m than any other books.^ He once wrote ^Peter Lisca, The Wide World of John Steinbeck. (New Brunswick, N e w Jersey, 1958), P«22.

8 3 of his writing: I have had fun with m y work and I shall insist on continuing to have fun with it. And it has been ray great good fortune in the past, as I hope it will be in the future, to find enough people to go along with me to the extent of buying books, so that I m a y eat and continue to have fun. I do not believe that I can much endanger or embellish the great structure of English literature.^ Overlooking this modest appraisal, the prose of Steinbeck, as well as the m a n himself, has been a fixture on the American literary scene for over 30 years. Steinbeck and his writing have been the subject of several books. The earliest critical monograph appeared after Grapes of Wrath in 1939» Harry T. Moore wrote The Novels of John Steinbeck and \\ias the first e x p e r t on Steinbeck. Other major critical works are Peter Lisca s The Wide World of John Steinbeck. J. E. Fontenrose s Giant John Steinbeck, and an excellent anthology of criticism edited b y E. W. Tedlock and C. V. Wicker titled Steinbeck and His C r i t i c s. Although style is mentioned in several of these works, this paper represents the first detailed stylistic analysis of Steinbeck s prose. In order to place his style in some sort of critical context, we should put Steinbeck in an identifiable group of writers. Such a group is well defined, I believe, in a book by Richard Bridgman ^Steinbeck and His Critics, ed. E. W. Tedlock, Jr. and C. V. Wicker (Albuquerque, N. M., 1957)» P* 47*

9 4 titled The Colloquial Style in America. In this study Mr. Bridgman attempts to establish a national prose style which has evolved partly in our lifetime. As the book states, Steinbeck participates in this national prose style: M y initial assumption is so broad as hardly to admit dispute; that a change has indeed taken place in American prose style in the last century and a half. Even in the absence of absolute proof ('which in stylistic matters is unthinkable), most readers would agree, I should think, that the prose of Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck, William Saroyan, and J. P. Marquand more closely resembles the prose of Ernest Hemingway than that of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Conversely, t h e p r o s e of George Lippard, M a r i a Susanna Cummins, Augusta Evans, Susan Warner, and William Ware has more affinities with Hawthorne than it has with writers in the current century.^ Therefore, m y findings will be closely related to the current colloquial style in America, and generalizations about this national prose style should also bear upon the writing of Steinbeck. I make this effort to fix; Steinbeck and his work in a literary history and context, not because I intend to correlate m y findings with those of Bridgman, but to make broader application possible. To avoid making statements about too narrow a portion of Steinbeck s work, I have chosen five different books. T h e y are different types and cover a period from about the beginning of his career in the early Thirties to the late Fifties. I f in one % e w York, 1966, pp. 3-4.

10 5 book, Steinbeck employs a style not like the others, the difference will be obvious b y comparison with the other books. If his style has changed during the years of writing, that too will become apparent b y following the development. Therefore, the main reason for using these five books is to get a sufficient cross- section. It is m y contention that a good writer has m a n y styles at his disposal, but he always retains some characteristics of his own particular style. Although Steinbeck*s style will vary in each book, there will be consistent stylistic traits found in all five books. The greater the amount of material considered and the longer the period it is distributed over, the more accurately we can distinguish the stylistic aspects which extend through all t h e books. The five books in chronological order are Pastures of Heaven, The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl. East of E d e n, and Travels with C h a r l e y.^ Pastures of Heaven (1932), Steinbeck s second book, is n o w considered one of h i s best. It is a thematically related series of short stories that is n o w generally referred to as a novel. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is a v e r y controversial novel that violently shook the nation right before World W a r II. It ^Pastures of H e a v e n, Compass Books Ed. (New York, 1963); The Grapes of W r a t h. Compass Books Ed. (New York, 1958); The P e a r l, The Red P o n y, Compass Books Ed. (New York, 1965); East of E d e n, Viking Press (New York, 1952); Travels with Charley, Viking Press (New York, 1962).

11 6 firmly established its author as a first-rate writer. The Pearl (1947) is a popular novelette which has received little critical acclaim. East of E d e n (1952) is a long and somewhat disorganized novel that, although much criticized, sold well and became a popular movie. As he has often done, Steinbeck, in the late Fifties, was traveling and writing newspaper columns. One cross-country trip resulted in m a n y articles which were later published as Travels with Charley (1962). Each of the five books will be submitted to the same type of investigation. This investigation will begin b y examining the externals regarding each book. The author»s purpose, the reception the book was given, the author»s comments about the book, influence the process of relating Steinbeck»s rhetorical strategies. The next concern will be to determine the average number of words per sentence, the average number of sentences and words per paragraph, and any extraordinary deviations from these averages. For purely arbitrary reasons I will usually consider sentences which are half or double the average as short or long respectively. These figures will v a r y from work to work, of course, but sentence length and paragraph length will be pertinent and revealing. In a study such as this, with several hundred thousand words involved, it would not be feasible to count t h e m all. The

12 7 paragraphs used are consecutive, except where it is otherwise noted, and they will not include dialogue and transitional paragraphs. A study of another nature would be necessary to properly treat dialogue. Dialogue must reflect the characters and they naturally show great dissimilarities from one book to another. Because of their nature, transitional paragraphs would only serve to falsely influence the averages. Therefore, paragraphs including dialogue and one or two sentence transitional paragraphs will not be included in this study» The next step will be to consider the significance of the percentages of grammatical sentence types (simple, compound, complex). Frequently, rhetorical sentence types (loose, periodic, antithetical, parallel) will be examined but not from the viewpoint of percentages. Functional types (declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory) and rhetorical types are important mostly in regal'd to why one is used in a situation, and not i n regard t o numbers. Diction will be the next facet of the study. Diction will be considered with several aspects, such as concrete or abstract, formal or informal, monosyllabic (usually Anglo-Saxon) or polysyllabic (usually Latinate), and common words or jargon. Not all of these aspects will be applicable to each book. Keeping in mind Mr. Bridgman»s comments, the most relevant will probably be monosyllabic and concrete.

13 8 After a treatment of diction will come what I choose to refer to as images, I use the term to m e a n roughly the equivalent of metaphor, simile, or personification. Images, especially recurring ones, often give clues to the theme of a book or insights into h o w the author feels about a thing. For example, when Steinbeck uses several animal images in describing the acts of someone, he m a y be suggesting that t h e y are not using their rational powers. He can imply m a n y things, not b y saying them, but with adroit use of Imagery. Images are valuable in prose analysis, not so much in an objective sense when they are counted, but lifaen t h e y reveal persistent undertones or feelings the author has. The last step will be to examine any unusual stylistic aspects. This might include -unusual schemes, repetition of words, idioms, or any obvious rhetorical device which is not included in the above-mentioned list of things under investigation. Such aspects will be limited and few, depending usually on external factors. I have elected to examine only these particular facets of style for several reasons. Most of the points will be objectively observable in all five books. This will make it possible to compare the five sets of figures in order to make further deductions. In a study of this magnitude, it would be difficult to note the more minute aspects of style, such as variety of sentence euphony. The points that I have selected to investigate

14 comprise what I believe to be the most revealing features of narrative prose style. These points should supply sufficient material to work with; however, the main difficulty w ill not be in compiling figures, but in making judgments about the rhetorical aptness of the stylistic features.

15 CHAPTER II PASTURES OF HEAVEN The Pastures of Heaven is a book of related short stories which center around a valley near Monterey, California. The third story, the portion I have chosen to examine, concerns "Shark Wicks" and his family. Steinbeck claims the valley, under another name, is real and the incidents which make up the stories are time. Critics of the book (most refer to it as a book because the stories are so intertwined they serve only as something like chapter divisions) can find little awry. T h e y usually tend to overlook it since it came v e r y early (1932, second book), deals with a seemingly light subject matter, and appears to be just short stories, which, of course, limits critical attention. Recently, esteem for this early contribution has been mounting, and it has been mentioned as Steinbeck*s best work. Analyzing the prose in one of the stories will not lead to generalizations about the interdependence and collective satirical impact of the stories, but it will reveal the style employed throughout the b o o k since t h e stories are homologous. ^Warren French, John Steinbeck. ( New York, 1961).

16 «11 In this third chapter, "Shark" is a local farmer who has gained a reputation as an astute bargainer when he disposes of his annual harvest of peaches and peas. He is thought to be quite rich (a natural deduction if you grant he is a "Shark*1), but this is not true. He keeps a ledger of imaginary monies and gloats over his "profits.** Intentionally nurturing the belief he is wealthy gets Mr. Wicks in trouble. H e is quite protective about his attractive young daughter, and when he returns from a brief trip he discovers his prize possession has been seen alone in the woods with a boy from another farm. In the action that follows, "Shark" puts himself in a circumstance where everybody finds out he is practically broke. although of little dramatic impact, ends the story. His demise, Steinbeck intended this incident as just the beginning, so he wanted only a small enough climactic situation to delineate this story without creating too high a point in his overall plot. Steinbeck»s purpose was to tell the story of the valley, rather than stress the isolated incidents. One family, the Munroes, moves into the valley and for no known reason brings a "curse" on the lives of the valley»s people. This chapter about "Shark Wicks'» is just the first of several incidents which get progressively more serious. Each time, the cause of the misfortune is a Munroe. Therefore, it would be a mistake to v i e w this passage as just a short story. It more closely resembles

17 12 a section of a novel. Examining paragraph and sentence length reveals 'what may well be a characteristic with Steinbeck. The average number of words in a paragraph is 68.1, and there is a strict adherence to the average. The longest paragraph is 220 words, and only two others exceed 140 words (double the average). Excluding the one sentence transitional paragraphs, only six have less than 3 4 words (half the average). This consistency and measured paragraphing indicate the author is a self-assured storyteller who molds the meat of his story into neat and well-balanced units to give the impression of a planned tale. The average paragraph includes 4»2 sentences. There are two paragraphs with nine sentences and one with eight. W i t h an average of 16.1 words per sentence, this is not a wide divergence. There are only six sentences over 40 and two sentences under five words. The sentences, like the paragraphs, observe a uniformity in length. It might be possible to dispute the statement that rigid sentence and paragraph length are indicators of a storyteller about-his-business. The fact is, Steinbeck is telling a story with several smaller stories. There is a great amount of rigidness and predetermined structure here. The sentences resemble standardized units as do the paragraphs and chapters. This conformity is so obvious that Steinbeck must have consciously

18 13 created t h e m for an effect. Whatever the intended effect, they seem to enhance the logical, planned, structured aspect of the plot. Similar sentences build similar paragraphs which result in similar chapters o r incidents. E a c h incident further in c r i m inates the Monroes. Such style and consistency serve a definite rhetorical purpose. Most of the sentences are simple (4*$). This seems natural with the uncomplicated and predictable nature of the style so far. It would be out of place to have involved sentence patterns in carefully balanced paragraphs. The other half of the sentences is divided between compound (21%) and complex (31^). The predominant rhetorical sentence types are loose and periodic. Of course, the primary functional type is declarative. With no point of contention and no urgent message to prevail upon a resisting audience, there is little call for complicated antithetical sentences or the like. Again, the attitude of an unhurried narrative is conjured up b y these unpresumptuous rhetorical strategies. The diction is mostly monosyllabic ( 5 ^ 0. This gives strength of expression and simplicity to the narrative, which fits in very well with this tale of country people. A writer purported to belong to the American colloquial style would be expected to use Anglo-Saxon diction as Steinbeck does. When diction is predominantly monosyllabic it is usually

19 14 concrete. The overwhelming percentage of nouns in The Pastures of Heaven is concrete. This is to be expected, in a story dealing with farms and farmers. There is not much use of jargon. (farming) which lends itself to jargon. resisted, because the traces are few There is an area here Steinbeck must have («baling wire,«'»prize bitch,«"bottom land"). Imagery m a y prove to be the most revealing aspect of all those examined. The images are excellent in Pastures of H e a v e n, and their implications deserve further examination. The predominant image treats of m a n y of the people and things in the book as cultivated objects. S o m e of the best examples: Katherine was not pretty, but she had the firm freshness of a n e w weed and bridling vigor of a young mare. Alice g r e w and became more and more beautiful. Her skin was lucent and rich as poppies; h e r black hair had the soft crispness of fern stems, her eyes were m i s t y skies of promise.»shark" is a m a n of the soil and he regards his wife and daughter as so m a n y more plants. Later there is reference to something happening to Alice*s chastity as her "defloration.** She is also called his "prize bitch," as I mentioned above. A m a n loves his wife and daughter in a much different way than he loves his crops. Steinbeck is saying this is not true with "Shark Wicks." He hoards and gloats over his possessions. He does not love; he covets. Steinbeck ruthlessly incriminates

20 15 "Shark * with imagery referring to his wife and daughter as soulless flora and fauna. Twice in this excerpt from Pastures of Heaven Steinbeck divides the story by leaving a large space between paragraphs. T h i3 seenis to indicate the passing of time and changing of setting. About the only remaining stylistic device is the way the author constructs the book. It is difficult to imagine a series of independently excellent short stories which combine to make such a fine novel. The normal continuity between chapters is a little lax, but the persistence of the theme serves as the necessary thread.

21 CHAPTER III THE (21AP.ES OF WRATH F e w books have shaken the United States as fiercely as The Grapes of W r a t h. This long novel about the migrant farm laborers searching for the means for bare existence electrified Americans just recovering from the depression. It placed Steinbeck at the pinnacle of authorship and also made h i m very rich. Generally speaking, Grapes of Wrath is the brightest spot in Steinbeck» s career. Warren French comments: Steinbeck has written nothing else as successful as this novel, nor does it seem likely he will. F e w writers, however, have even written one such work one that looking back we can see marks not only the high point of its author»s career but the close of an era in American history and literature. Another critic, Dorothy Parker, called Grapes of Wrath»»the greatest American novel I have ever read. Adverse criticism was mostly aimed at the controversial material in the book. A Congressional inquiry was held, and an Oklahoma Congressman called Steinbeck a»»damnable liar. Archbishop Spellman publicly denounced the book. Steinbeck»s motivation in Grapes of Wrath is comparable to Swift»s in A Modest Proposal. The big Californian wanted attention farren French, John Steinbeck (New York, 1961)

22 17 focused on the migrant farmers, not solely the riches of literary acclaim. He repeatedly refused to plug the book or temper its reception with use of h i s well-known name. He wanted the book to speak for itself. The Grapes of Wrath is one of the more widely known American novels. The Joads are the literary epitome of downtrodden people.» Okies is a term m a d e famous b y Steinbeck. With credentials such as these the findings w i l l be of particular interest. We will be looking into Steinbeck*s best. I have chosen SO paragraphs including about 10,000 words from which to make objective observations about the book. These paragraphs average words each. This is long for Steinbeck, and the reason lies in the nature of the book. Much of the book is commentary and somewhat philosophical. The paragraphs are twice as long as those in Pastures of Heaven, and this is because the two books are so little alike. The message in Pastures of Heaven is contained in the simple plots, while there is no effort made to comment on the happenings. The interchapters in Grapes of Wrath are mostly rambling commentary and furnish much of the extra length. Occasionally, Steinbeck creates irregular sentences and paragraph patterns by drifting into a monologue, narrative style. He uses an unorthodox style which consists of omitting ordinary dialogue punctuation to achieve a type of free-flowing, rapidly

23 18 moving monologue. This, of course, disrupts the regular length patterns. I have chosen not to include any such passages in the 80 paragraphs. Here is a typical example: The big car was cruising along at sixty. I want a cold drink. Well, there»s something u p ahead. Want to stop? Do you think it would be clean? Clean as y o u are going to find i n this Godforsaken country. Well, maybe the bottled soda will be all right. T h e great car squeals and pu l l s to a stop. The fat worried m a n helps his wife out. M a e looks at and past t h e m as t h e y enter. A1 looks up from his griddle, and down again. M a e k n o w s. T h e y l l drink a five-cent soda and crab it a i n t cold enough. -Although this is definitely a stylistic feature, it 'would have to be considered separately. To m i x these passages in with the regular prose would create an imbalance with the figures. The excerpts must b e considered dialogue for the purpose of this paper. The sentences in Grapes of Wrath average 17.5 words. This figure is comparable to the other selections. With such long paragraphs the sentences might be expected to be longer also, but Steinbeck uses more of the same length sentences instead of longer ones. With 6.6 sentences in the average paragraph, Grapes of Wrath has 5051 m o r e sentences per paragraph than Pastures of Heaven, and sentence le n g t h rem a i n s a consistent aspect. Simple sentences are numerous. T h e y make up 7 of the 531 sentences examined. Compound sentences comprise 18$, and the last 8$ are complex. The only rhetorical significance here is probably

24 19 the high number of simple sentences. This seems to be explained b y the type of person the book deals with. speak in grammatically simple sentences. The Joads most likely Steinbeck has just transferred these simple sentences into h i s prose about the Joads. The diction in Grapes of Wrath is mostly what is expected from a book about a hard and dirty side of life. An overwhelming percentage of the words are concrete and 57/» are monosyllabic. Again, this preponderance of Anglo-Saxon diction is a sign that the thesis of Mr. Bridgman might be interesting to pursue. If Hemingway and others have the tendency toward monosyllabic diction as Steinbeck does, it could easily be the chief characteristic of the current colloquial style. To tell a story of hardship and defeat at the hands of an unmoved land would call for language that was hard-hitting and that would leave little to the imagination. To tell about people with no education or even exposure to literate culture requires language on their part that is as realistic as the dust storms. Vivid, concrete terminology cased in one syllable words fits the situation eocactly. Other noticeable aspects are the lack of either jargon or formal language. Jargon might easily have a place if the setting was more agricultural. There is no need for much talk of farming when travel, work, and hunger are the main interests. The dialogue is packed with bad grammar, but the author does not continue the

25 20 use in his narrative. Only in a few descriptive passages does Steinbeck use imagery to any extent. This example comes early in the book,»a large red drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a t o m cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. Imagery implies an effort on the writer»s part to create a special effect in the reader. Although an image can be horrible, its presence still says the writer made a positive effort to achieve the effect. Steinbeck lets the situation speak. He does not feel he needs figures of speech to illustrate what a literal description can fairly do. The lack of imagery is most likely due to the earthy, simple approach Steinbeck chooses to take. Knowing he normally tends to tie imagery in with the theme of the book, we can see he has made an effort to remain direct in Grapes of W r a t h. The obvious device Steinbeck uses in this long book is what I called similar to unpunctuated dialogue. In m a n y places he drops punctuation proper to quotations and lets the words flow from unknown mouths prompted b y an unseen commentator. M a n y of the sentences are in conversational style, but m a n y times we do not know who speaks them or what is going on. The result is something like being there and hearing everything said. The

26 21 sense of -what is happening is conveyed, and the reader is unfettered b y njoad said, s,t o m replied, etc. This passage about the used car dealer is typical: Another example: Piles of rusty ruins against the fence, rows of wrecks in back, fenders, grease-black wrecks, blocks lying on the ground and a pig weed growing u p through the cylinder. Brake rods, exhausts, piled like snakes. Grease, gasoline. See if y o u c a n ft find a spark plug that a i n t cracked. Christ, if I had fifty trailers at a hundred, I d clean up. What the hell is he kicking about? We sell e m, b u t w e d o n t p u s h era. home for him. T h a t s good!.. D o n t p u s h e m home. Get that one in the monthly, 1 bet. You d o n t think h e s a prospect? Well, k i c k i m out. Danny in the back seat wants a cup of water. Have to wait. Got no water here. Listen that the rear end? C a n t tell. Sound telegraphs through the frame. There goes a gasket. Got to go on. Listen to her whistle. Find a nice place to camp a n I l l jerk the h e a d off. But, God Almighty, the f o o d s gettin low. When we c a n t buy no more gas what then? Steinbeck must have chosen the rambling, unpunctuated dialogue with a special purpose. He probably wanted to let the story tell itself and be free from literary conventions where feasible. Using this unhampered form shifts emphasis from the speakers to the larger theme of their problems.

27 CHAPTER IV THE PEARL The Pearl is a popular rendition of a legend -which Steinbeck heard idhile in Mexico collecting material for a book. It is often criticized because the original legend was far less romantic than, this story of Kino. Steinbeck made the mistake of mentioning the original legend in a book and then composing a version for a woman*s magazine. W h e n The Pearl appeared (1947), it was obvious this was an altered legend, and it reaped criticism for being adulterated and popularized.? According to this type of criticism the book might be suspected of containing expanded and unnecessary passages. Since the publication of The Pearl was followed b y Cannery R o w, m a n y critics saw the work as merely a diversion from the more serious work the author had been about. This charge could be supported b y finding indications of quality sacrificed for mass appeal; however, such indications might h e difficult to find in an analysis of t h i s type. The book adapts w e l l to investigation. There is little dialogue because the characters are not vociferous types. It would not be feasible to have the natives relate the history, ^Peter Lisca, The Wide World of John Steinbeck (New Brunswick, N e w Jersey, 195&).

28 23 circumstances, and action of the plot. Brevity enables treatment of the entire work excepting only those paragraphs precluded in m y introduction. The Pearl is the simple story of Kino and his wife Juana and their baby Coyotito. Peacefulness and serenity rule their lives on the sunny beaches of the Gulf until Coyotito is bitten by a scorpion. K i n o s request for help from the doctor is refused because, as Kino is aware, for many years his people have been oppressed and treated as animals by the d o c t o r s people. The distressed parents go out to sea, and Kino searches for a great pearl which w i l l enable them, to p a y for care of Coyotito. Kino does find a great pearl, and immediately n e w friends emerge from all directions. The doctor comes and treats the baby, even though it had shown signs of being past danger. Juana h a d prayed for the pearl, and n o w all h e r problems seemed to have passed. The day comes when Kino goes to the town to sell the pearl to one of the pearl-buyers. W i t h a large following of townspeople he offers the gem to each buyer. He is enraged when none w i l l offer h i m much money, saying that his pearl is a mere curiosity, too big to be valuable. H e realizes they have collaborated and knows he is defeated here. Life grows unbearable as Kino is beaten b y mysterious men, and once he even strikes and kicks Juana when she tries to throw

29 \ 24 the cause of their misfortune back into the sea. Although Coyotito is n o w fully recovered, Kino s t i l l dreams of great riches from his pearl. He kills a man who has accosted him, and returns home to find their brush house on fire. They hide in the house of his brother, and then they leave by night for a large city where someone wi l l b u y the pearl. T h e y are tracked across the desert and into the mountains. There Kino attacks and without mercy k i l l s the pursuers, but a stray shot during the fracas kills Coyotito. Subdued, Kino and Juana w a l k back to their village and with little ceremony throw the great pearl 'into the waiting sea. W i t h the variety of situations it is obvious the style must change or v a r y frequently in order to successfully convey the action. The plot is packed with emotions and simple themes. Since the story is such a simple, "uncomplicated narrative, there is a possibility the consistent and balanced style of Pastures of Heaven might be repeated. Moreover, the characters in The Pearl closely resemble those in Pastures of H e a v e n. The 180 suitable paragraphs comprise about 90% of the book. They average 4*99 sentences and 95*9 words each. The longest paragraph in sentences is 17 sentences, with 212 words. This average is 12.5 words per sentence. The longest paragraph in words contains 320 words in 13 sentences. This is 24.6 words in each sentence. This large discrepancy from the average sentence has some rhetorical significance.

30 25 The paragraph with the longer sentences describes a beautiful scene in the mountains. In their flight from the trackers, Kino and Juana have reached the mountains, which represent a degree of security arid achievement. T h e y can relax and catch their breath. Steinbeck uses long rambling sentences to indicate he is in no hurry and is not n o w worried about the pursuers. This haven is one of beauty and serenity, with none of the "evil music*1 Kino knows. In the paragraph of short sentences the action moves quickly. Hearts beat rapidly as Kino climbs back into his boat. He has collected the oysters in which they will look for pearls. Anticipation mounts as t h e y prepare to open the oysters. The short, quick sentences match the mood of the young couple. Differences in sentence length can m e a n other things. Two later paragraphs, almost consecutive, offer an interesting parallel. The first contains two sentences with 82 words. The second is four sentences with 56 words. They average 41 and 14 words p e r sentence respectively. T h e s e are the t w o paragraphs: The sun was hot yellow that morning, and it drew the moisture from the estuary and from the Gulf and hung it in shimmering scarves in the air so that the air vibrated and vision was insubstantial. A vision hung in the air to the north of the city the vision of a mountain that was over two hundred miles away, and the high slopes of this mountain were swaddled with pines and a great stone peak arose above the timber line. The neighbors, watching Kino*s door through the crevices in their brush houses, were dressed and

31 26 ready too. There was no self-consciousness about their joining Kino and Juana to go pearl selling. It was expected, it was a historic moment, they would be crazy if they d i d n t go. It would be almost a sign of unfriendship. The first has long sentences, again, to show peacefulness and n a t u r e s beauty. The second paragraph with its short sentences represents the buzzing, bustling activity of a town coming to life. The neighbors break the quiet scene depicted in the first paragraph. As the people change, the sentences change. The group returns after trying to sell the pearl, and Steinbeck uses similar short sentences to get the effect of a buzzing crowd: K i n o s neighbors whispered together. T h e y had been afraid of something like this. The pearl was large, but it h a d a strange color. T h e y had been suspicious of it from the first. And after all, a thousand pesos was not to be thrown away. It was comparative wealth to a m a n who was not wealthy. And suppose Kino took a thousand pesos. Only yesterday he had nothing. Here the short sentences symbolize more than the activity of the people. Steinbeck has put their words into a narrative in a manner which makes them a collective whole speaking out with one mind. I mentioned above that the style of The Pearl closely resembles that of Pastures of H e a v e n. The b o o k s average paragraph has 95*6 words. There are nine paragraphs over 200 words, and one over 300. There are nine paragraphs under 3 0 words.

32 27 This is a good balance and hints at no propensity for either long or short paragraphs. There is a great amount of constancy in the paragraphs. As an entirely arbitrary division, if the 180 paragraphs are separated into eighteen consecutive groups of ten, and the average sentences per paragraph figured for each group, the results are startling. Nine of the unit averages f a l l between 4*5 and 5.5. This means that half of the paragraphs vary less than lcp> from the cumulative average which is sentences per paragraph. All the sentences taken together average words and are well-balanced, with no large number of long or short sentences. There are only a few sentences over 45 words or under 7 words. Just as everything else shows a balance between the parts rather than an abnormal portion of anything, the grammatical types of sentences are also evenly spread. Compound (38$) and simple (37/0 are only slightly more common than complex ( 25% ). The rhetorical significance of this wi l l be difficult to judge until the findings of all five books can be compared. Particular rhetorical sentence devices are not easily found in a straightforward story like The P e a r l. And, almost for the same reasons, functional sentence types are largely restricted to declarative. With the narrative style this is almost a necessity. Concrete diction is the rule, as the opening paragraph verifies:

33 28 Kino awakened in the near dark. The stars still shone and the day had drawn only a pale wash of light in the lower sky to the east. The roosters had been crowing for some time, and the early pigs were already beginning their ceaseless turning of twigs and bits of wood to see whether anything to eat had been overlooked. Outside the brush house in the tuna clump, a covey of little birds chittered and flurried with their wings. A preponderance of monosyllabic words also turns up in this first paragraph. A quick count shows 53/5 of the words are monosyllabic and just over 6QSfo are concrete. The words are common and a junior high student could handle the vocabulary. Images give the most interesting insights. Steinbeck often.gives animate qualities t o groups of people, such as a village or even the world. An elaborate image refers to the village in Which Kino lives o r a n y town: And later: A town is a thing like a colonial animal. A town has a nervous system and a head and shoulders and feet. A town is a thing separate from all other towns, so that there are no two towns alike. And a town has a whole emotion. H o w news travels through a town is a m ystery not easily to be solved. News seems to move faster than small boys can scramble and dart to tell it, faster than women can call it over the fences. It is wonderful the way a little town keeps track of itself and of all its units. If every single man and woman, child and baby, acts and conducts itself in a known pattern and breaks no walls and differs with no one and experiments in no way and is not sick and does not endanger the ease and peace of mind or steady unbroken flow of the town, then the unit can disappear and never be heard of. But let one man step out of the regular thought or the known and

34 29 trusted pattern, and the nerves of the townspeople ring with nervousness and communication travels over the nerve lines of the town. Then every unit communicates to the whole. These towns are alive, acting and reacting to things around them. The other people in the book have some security because they are a part of this unit, while Kino is the focus of this thing*s attention. Images like these bring down labels such as 1 b i o l o g i c a l naturalism. A series of animal images is very effective. The strong materialistic note is enhanced when the characters in their efforts to capitalize on the pearl, act like wild beasts. 'They were the trackers, they could follow the trail of a b i g horn sheep in the stone mountains. T h e y scuttled over the ground like animals and found a sign and crouched over it while the horseman waited. "The trackers whined a little, like excited dogs on a warming trail. A n d Kino ran for the high place, as nearly all animals do when they are pursued. It is a strong and persistent image which adds impact to the simple, uncomplicated nature of the story. Steinbeck maintains a strong thread of continuity throughout the book b y relating some of the thoughts of Kino. From the very beginning Kino is infatuated with the "music of the things around him. The peaceful life described in the first pages of the book brings the "Song of the Family to his mind. It is the beautiful and natural harmony of their simple w a y of life. Later he hears

35 30 the strains of a different song. The scorpion is slowly heading down the rope toward Coyotito when Kino hears the Song of Evil. These songs battle each other in K i n o s mind throughout the book. Eventually Kino knows the «Song of E v i l as the «Song of the Pearl. In the beginning of this chapter, I mentioned criticism of The P e a r l, which held that the book was too long for the story and message involved. The total words (17,260), average words per paragraph (95.9), and average words per sentence (19.2), indicate that if the book is drawn out for one reason or another, it does not show up in this analysis. An examination of the plot -or characterization might reveal verbosity. On the whole, the style employed coincides well with the author s purpose and the material he dealt with. There are no glaring aspects or special devices u s e d that add t o or clash w i t h current critical opinion. The critical remarks about oven-inflation seem to be directed toward this version of the great pearl as compared with the first version

36 CHAPTER V EAST OF EDEN East of E d e n, published in 1952, was much more of a financial success than a literary achievement. This rambling novel about Cathy Ames and her association with the Trask family lacks the message of Grapes of 'Wrath. The two books are, however, similar in many respects. The plots are equally involved and complicated. The characters in each are from the seamy side of life. Dialogue is a principal means of telling the stories. Both books sold many copies, and each was sold to the movies at a premium. The film of Bast of Eden featured the idol of the younger set, James Dean, in one of his last roles. All in all, East of Eden was a well-known and highly popular book, but literary value has seldom ft been attributed to it. Steinbeck centered the book on the life of a beautiful young girl who believed she could connive anything she wanted or needed from life by using her knowledge of people and their sexual impulses. T h e author succumbs to a rare streak of d i r e ctness and, I believe, builds the entire book from this passage: Cathy learned when she was v e r y young that sexuality with all its attendant yearnings and pains, jealousies and taboos, is the m o s t distur b i n g s^steinbeck and His C r i t i c s, ed. E. W. Tedlock, Jr. and C. V. Wicker (Albuquerque, N. M., 1957)«

37 32 impulse humans have. And in that day it was even more disturbing than it is now, because the subject was unmentionable and unmentioned. Everyone concealed that little hell in himself, while publicly pretending it did not exist and when he was caught up in it he was completely helpless. Cathy learned that by manipulation and u se of this one part of people she could gain and keep power over nearly anyone. It was at once a weapon and a threat. It was irresistible. And since the blind helplessness seems never to have fallen on Cathy, it is probable that she had very little of the impulse herself and indeed felt a contempt for those who did. And when you think of it in one way, she w a s right. What freedom m e n and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured b y their sexuality! The only drawback in that freedom is that without it one would not be human. One would be a monster. 'Cathy Ames (during the book she is also known as Cathy Amesbury, Cathy Trask, and Kate Albey) snarls and fights her w a y through life with all the success she imagined, but finds no peace. Steinbeck had a popular and noteworthy theme, but there was no mission or immediacy involved here. Partially because of this, the book just never achieved much stature. Whether or not another reason shows up in this analysis, the external factors surrounding the book are most likely to blame. I have chosen 100 representative paragraphs containing 10,010 words from which to make the examination. This involves 642 sentences. The average number of sentences per paragraph is 6.4» This might be high b y comparison with the other books, but it seems to be reasonable considering the length, complicated plot, and nature of the subject of the book.

38 33 The average number of words per paragraph (100.1) is deceptive. There are several series of short paragraphs which lower the average somewhat disproportionately. One of the more typical- paragraphs speaks about A d a m Trask*s parents: His private life was also laced through with his n e w profession. He was a man devoted. His house and farm he organized on a military basis. He demanded and got reports on the conduct of his private economy. It is probable that Alice preferred it this way. She was not a talker. A terse report was easiest for her. She was busy with the growing boys and with keeping the house clean and the clothes washed. Also, she h a d to conserve her energy, though she did not mention this in any of h e r reports. Without warning h e r energy would leave her, and she would have to sit down and wait until it came back. In the night she would be drenched with perspiration. She knew perfectly well she had what was called consumption, would have known even if she was not reminded b y a hard, exhausting cough. And she did not know h o w long she would live. Some people wasted on for quite a few years. There wasn»t any rule about it. Perhaps she didrlt care to mention it to her husband. He had devised a method for dealing with sickness which resembled punishment. A stomach ache was treated with a purge so violent that it was a wonder anyone survived it. If she had mentioned her condition, Cyrus might have started a treatment which would have killed her off before her consumption could have done it. Besides, as Cyrus became more military, his wife learned the only technique through which a soldier can survive. She never made herself noticeable, never spoke unless spoken to, performed what was expected and no more, and t r i e d for no promotions. She became a rear rank private. It was much easier that way. Alice retired to the background until she was barely visible at all. This paragraph is not unique in the book, and yet it has almost three times the average number of words per paragraph. There are 24 sentences. That is about four times the average.

39 34 The reason for the shorter sentences and the length of this paragraph is obvious. Steinbeck is rushing through a brief description of life in Cyrus Trask*s home. One of the shortest sentences is about the small amount of communication between the two of them, A terse report was easiest for her." The correlation between what he is saying and h o w he says it is apparent. He is also terse. Again, when Steinbeck says Alice does not talk much, he says it in a few words, «She was not a talker. Near the end of the paragraph the pace slackens and the sentences lengthen. The sentences average 15.5 words. There are many sentences ranging from 40 to 75 words. The average is unduly l o w because of the number of very short sentences. In other words, in Bast of Bden paragraph and sentence length varies greatly. T h e y are not at all consistent; therefore, the averages do not reflect reality well. This is, however, one of the reasons the book is criticized as rambling. Grammatical sentence types offer an interesting statistic. Thirty-eight percent of the sentences are complex. This figure is Inordinately high. grammatically complex. Almost two of every five sentences is Simple sentences comprise 28%, and compound sentences of the total sentences. The rhetorical significance can be measured by determining w h y a writer departs from more direct and simple sentence structure. The answer is probably that Steinbeck fitted his sentence structure (consciously or

40 35 unconsciously) into the involved schemes and subplots of his books. bast of Eden is a long novel. The plot brings the reader in contact with farming, whoring, doctoring, business, and the military. A specialized vocabulary is necessary to be proficient at storytelling in each of these areas. To be realistic, the author must use the terminology of each field. Steinbeck does a good job. Almost anyone could pick up a few n e w or forgotten obscene phrases, learn some things about prostitution, and bone u p on his chemistry b y deciphering the names of all the medicines xand potions concocted. Steinbeck draws upon an embarrassingly large knowledge of jargon. Judging b y the experiences of the other books examined, East of Eden would seem to be laden with concrete terns. That is not the case. Maybe this has some bearing on the book»s literary value. Possibly Steinbeck is too broad and abstract in his assertions. The percentage of abstract words is 62$. This is practically the reverse of The P e a r l. All the factors concerned subject matter, characterization, past experience point toward a preponderance of Anglo-Saxon diction in East of E d e n. As is the case with the abstract terminology, the book flaunts our expectations. O n l y 3Z$ of the substantive words are monosyllabic. For some reason East of Eden is different from Grapes of Wrath in these two respects concrete

41 36 and monosyllabic diction. This unusual statistic might be related to the poor literary acceptance the book received; only further examination will tell. Imagery is not prominent in East of E d e n. The book has few purely descriptive passages, but these contain most of what imagery there is. This excerpt is typical of the scattered examples: Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man. It happens to nearly everyone. You can feel it growing and preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite. It is a feeling in the stomach, a delimit of the nerves, of the forearms. The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet. Its beginning has the pleasure of a great stretching yawn; it flashes in the brain and the whole world glows outside your eyes. A man m a y have lived all his life in the gray, dark and somber. The events even the important ones, m a y have trooped b y faceless and pale. And then the glory so that a cricket song sweetens his ears, the smell of the earth rises chanting to his nose, and dappling light under a tree blesses his eyes. Then a man pours outward, a torrent of him, and yet he is not diminished. And I guess a m a n s importance in the world can be measured by the quality and number of his glories. It is a lonely thing but it relates us to the world. It is the mother of all creativeness, and it sets each man separate from all other men. There are no pertinent series o f images, just t h e inescapable sprinkling of metaphor. In a few places Steinbeck gives in to a sort of poetic impulse. H e turns dramatic and even a little maudlin, «Oh, strawberries d o n t taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch.««for the world was changing, and sweetness was