Several other patterns of imagery surface in the works, of course, primary among them figures of light and shadow. When the reader first meets Jim Casy of The Grapes of Wrath, he is described thus: “It was a long head, bony, tight of skin, and set on a neck as stringy and muscular as a celery stalk.” Similarly, in the first paragraph of the novel, the earth itself, with its cracked, desecrated day and mournful wind becomes a living image of the people's spirits. The association becomes complete when Pepe tries to speak, and the only sound of which he is capable is a “thick hiss.” Along with the very frequent animal imagery, the reader often encounters earth imagery, usually in the form of a simile. Pepe “crawled,”“wormed,”“wriggled,”“darted,”“writhed,” and “squirmed” in the final stages of his torment. When Pepe is stripped of all civilized tools, his movements are increasingly described in verbs that suggest a primordial or serpentine creature.
In “Flight,” for example, the reader finds animal imagery of two sorts.
Even a brief purview of recent criticism will indicate such common patterns as animal (for instance, as in The Pearl) and earth imagery. Finally, a case is presented for reading The Winter of Our Discontent as an “experiment” that worked and as a novel that accomplished what its author intended.John Steinbeck's use of imagery is a well-known and frequently mentioned subject in discussions of his stylistic art. The novel and Ethan's behavior are compared with the Arthurian principles that Steinbeck extolled in his life and works. Key passages from Sea of Cortez and excerpts from Steinbeck: A Life in Letters illuminate the rationale for Ethan's character and relationships with his family and others in New Baytown. In fact the paper book was probably printed from a PDF document. In this article, the morality of Hawley's decisions and the structural format of this complex novel are examined in biological terms of adaptability, survival, and the community tide pool.
Several critiques characterize the story as vague, implausible, and irresolute, especially in comparison to Steinbeck's earlier California novels. Many critics characterize the protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, as immoral, greedy, and a Judas-like betrayer of friend and associates. No work of John Steinbeck has received more controversy, disparate opinion, and misinterpretation than his last novel, The Winter of Our Discontent.
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