What John Steinbeck Teaches Us About Human Nature
This Nobel prizewinner was full of wisdom.
“There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
A Decade of Steinbeck
I was first introduced to Steinbeck’s work in high school, as I imagine that most people are.
I was the type of kid who generally got excited for English class, because it is where my natural talent for reading aloud and for reading books quickly truly shone. Everyone in class was gleeful when Of Mice & Men was chosen to be our book of the semester because it was the shortest book we’d read so far — but even they weren’t ready for the sucker punch in the gut that is the ending.
Says he foun’ he jus’ got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain’t no good, ’cause his little piece of a soul wasn’t no good ‘less it was with the rest, an’ was whole. — Of Mice and Men
I remember reading the last scene of the book weeks before the rest of the class, perched on the edge of my waterbed with my nails in my mouth. The sun shone in through my blinds as it set in the west, flooding my room with color. Tears streamed down my face, picking up and reflecting the…
