I am woman....hear me roar.....
9 years ago
Saturday, March 3, 2012
American novel
Steinbeck has a character refer to Americans as a "breed," and near the end of the book Lee says to a conflicted Cal that "We are all descended from the restless, the nervous, the criminals, the arguers and brawlers, but also the brave and independent and generous. If our ancestors had not been that, they would have stayed in their home plots in the other world and starved over the squeezed-out soil." What makes this a quintessentially American book? Can you identify archetypically American qualities—perhaps some of those listed above—in the characters?
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3 comments:
I think that each of us has in us some good and not so good qualities and each person has the choice to become good or not so good.
Some were adventuresome and restless to explore, others content to stay in one place. Others wanted to be successful and others were satisfied with what they had. Others gave their lives to serve and learn, others to take from others at wahtever cost and serve their own interests.
I love Lee’s speech about the American breed, “We all have that heritage no matter what lands our father’s left. All colors and blends of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies. It’s a breed selected out by accident. And so we’re overbrave and overfearful-we’re kind and cruel as children. We’re overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers. We boast and are impressed. We’re oversentimental and realistic. We are mundane and materialistic-and do you know of any other nation that acts for ideals? We eat too much. We have no taste, no sense of proportion. We throw our energy about like waste. In the old lands they say of us that we go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening culture….That’s what we are Cal-all of us. You aren’t very different.
There are definitely some indiosyncracies that we share in our culture but as for the book as a whole being American, I disagree. This is written about the good and evil and the battle for the human soul which is a story that transcends country or ethnicity.
I do think it transcends country as you said but then also it really gives a feel of this country and what has always been so important to those who live here.
I think owning land and the land you are raised on has always been a part of the American mentality/ dream.
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