In John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent, Ethan Allen Hawley, the main character, endures endless amounts of stress and tension in his life. Ethan felt as though he was surrounded in a world where no one respected him, not even his own family. Ethan's social status, cultural factors, and psychological problems, gradually ate away the honesty that was once within him. .
Ethan was a descendant of proud and honorable sea captains who resided in New England. At one time, Ethan's ancestors owned a majority of New Baytown and all of the whaling ships, but all of their wealth came crashing down when Ethan's father made a few bad investments. That left Ethan with hardly any money and a job as a clerk at a grocery store which was once owned by his family. The store was taken over by an Italian immigrant named Alfio Marullo. Ethan's job supplied his family with just enough money to make ends meet, yet this did not satisfy his family. Mary, Ethan's wife, relentlessly wanted more than what she possessed, and she frequently compared their family to others who achieved a higher status in society. Allen, Ethan's son, embodied the perfect example of a deceitful and disrespectful child with low moral standards. The fact that Allen committed the crime of plagiarism in hopes of winning a nation-wide essay contest bothered Ethan, but the thing that pushed Ethan's anger beyond the point of understandable terms was that Allen didn't feel guilty about it until he got caught. That leaves Ellen, Ethan's daughter, who was just a very precocious young lady. Since Ethan's family never seemed contented with what they had, they pressured Ethan into gaining a respectable social acclamation.
The town and its people had high expectations of Ethan's name and heritage. The community anticipated social worth from the Hawley name, but to have social worth, Ethan needed money. New Baytown was awaiting the arrival of progress with the new government leaders coming into office.
John Steinbeck: A Great American Writer John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902. He made his native region of Monterey Bay the setting for most of his fictional novels. Steinbeck studied marine biology at Stanford University between 1920 and 1926. Three years later, he wrot...
John Steinbeck was born in February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. Salinas was an agricultural valley in California. The community was a comfortable environment for him to live in because of the encouragement of independence and initiative. His parents didn't want him to be a writer. They wanted ...
Industrialization and the poor working conditions of the peasants put pressure of the Tsar to quell the social discontent that this created. ... The paltry pay, the over crowdedness, extensive hours and destitute working conditions took its toll on the laborers, establishing discontent and leaving the door open for political opposition to form. ... 'We are seeking here our last salvation. ... It is evident through this extract of the petition that the original intent of the march was not one calling for political reform, but when the march almost reached the Winter Palace, they were conf...
The king built three palaces for Siddhartha, one for winter, one for summer, and one for the rainy season. ... We will not send our daughters (Mitchell 21)." Siddhartha, discontent with the reply, asked King Suddhodana to invite the kinsfolk test the prince's strength, physically and mentally. ... Lopez writes, "O Mara, lust is your first battalion, your second is called discontent. ...
In fact, during his rule as discontent rose, Nicholas still believed that he still had the support of all his people save for a couple of "undesirables". ... Thus, even though the tsar was not in the winter palace at the time and hadn't ordered the troops to fire the popular image of the tsar was eroded as was the structure of tsarist regime. After the shooting, father Gapon who led the petition had said, "The bullets of the tsar's soldiers have riddled our portraits of the tsar and killed our faith in him. We must take revenge for our brothers on the tsar Death to them." ...
His Final novel "The Winter of Discontent- was published in 1961. ... He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement. ...
The last part is perhaps the most meaningful quote from Davis eulogy is, "Consigning these mortal remains to earth, the common mother of all, secure in the knowledge that what we place in the ground is no more now a man - but a seed - which, after the winter of our discontent, will come forth again to meet us. And we will know him then for what he was and is - a Prince - our own black shining Prince! ...
