In Dubious Battle
(John Steinbeck)
This is one of Steinbeck's earlier novels and is nopt widely known. From reading it one can understand why he was in trouble with the House Committee on Unamerican Activities during the McCarthy era. John Steinbeck always sympathasized with the underdog and he showed the disgraceful practices of big business and even ordinary people when it came to migrant workers. This novel shows how he was sympathetic to communist ideals. Remnember that communist ideals are a far cry from what eventually developed in Russia and China. They are based upon everyone contributing what they can to society and taking what they need. Of course, knowing human nature as well as he did, he could also see how difficult it would be to make it work.
While the writing is not as tight as his later work, Steinbeck was already a master of characterization when he wrote this. The people a both symbolic and extremely real. He did not create these symbolic characters. They were all around him and they are still around us. One of the things that made Steinback so popular was that he saw that no group had a monopoly on any human trait, good or bad. Circumstances merely exagerrate what is already there, and any of us has the capacity to be a hero or a villain, depending upon our particular make-up and the circumstances within which we find ourselves.
This novel is practically unknown, so if you are tired of the usual list you might try it.
Resumos Relacionados
- A Russian Journal
- The Grapes Of Wrath
- John Steinbeck
- Knowledge As Characteristic Of The Humanity
- A Russian Journal
|
|
