Steinbeck, the American-5

68 CONCLUSION From this spindly, often speculative, active thesis that Steinbeck has produced over the course of the American trilogy, a pattern emerges. Here, we have the space to ponder this thesis, to consider how Steinbeck came to his ideas and conclusions, tracing the map he developed over three books; why any of this matters and what it means for Americans. Steinbeck’s letters, recalling the Introduction, presented a confused, scared man. Steinbeck was concerned about the state of the American spirit. Certain events of the time -- such as the TV scandal involving Van Doren -seemed to point to what Steinbeck was sensing was becoming normal throughout the country; immorality and a lack of integrity. But what did this mean for Americans? To Steinbeck, it was a sign that Americans had lost touch with the American spirit, with that special intrinsic, uniquely American quality that makes them Americans. He felt that we had gained this immorality by reversing the American Dream, trading the deeply heartfelt old dream for a new, materialistic one. Steinbeck explored this perversion of the American Dream in ​The Winter of Our Discontent​, while also demonstrating the consequences of this. In the novel, Steinbeck explores the life and actions of his character, Ethan Allen Hawley. Ethan, a grocery clerk in a store his family used to own, craves the status and money that his family name no longer holds. The Hawleys had built New Baytown, and the Great Depression robbed them of it. To get this status and money back, Ethan commits a number of pretty terrible acts. Ethan has his boss, an illegal immigrant, deported, and acquires the grocery store in the process. At one point, Ethan considers robbing a bank. Ethan gives his former best-friend, Danny Taylor, the tools with which to kill himself, and gaining a 69 large and valuable plot of land in the process. He uses this to blackmail a prominent businessman to maintain his wealth. All the while, Ethan is assuring himself he deserves these things because his roots, his family name, meant he did. But Steinbeck highlights these acts in a specific way. I demonstrated how Steinbeck portrayal of Ethan’s fixation on wealth and status, on roots, is a corrupted version of the American Dream, as Steinbeck understands the concept. The true American Dream is a connection with the land -- of being one with civilization and with people -- while also completing the highest achievement one can do with their innate capability. Ethan’s actions were ones that were dishonest, wasteful; he connected with material and rootedness, not with the land or people. In fact, Ethan failed to participate in the dream at all. The kind of immorality Steinbeck writes about in ​Winter​ is the primary drive behind his American trilogy. Being the first part, it is the diagnosis of an illness within the American body. ​Travels with Charley: In Search of America is a field study of Americans -- to discern what truly is that innate Americanness he believes exists within all Americans -- so that he can fully explain the problem and treatment in ​America and Americans​. In ​Travels​, Steinbeck builds on ​Winter​, taking a personal journey across America, to talk to Americans so he may re-understand it and discern the innate Americanness, which he believes is the frontier. The frontier, which is movement (westering) to seek out the unknown, is described in Frederick Jackson Turner’s ​The Significance of the Frontier in American History​, a landmark, but controversial, thesis in America culture. The frontier transitioned from a physical space (the West), into an intrinsic drive that pushed Americans forward. Steinbeck understands Americans from a biological sense, seeing them as a species with different breeds. This allows him to make those big claims about the innate Americanness. Steinbeck goes through his journey, meeting 70 Americans and coming to conclusions about the different kinds of Americans. But Steinbeck also appreciates the natural beauty of America, and comes to the conclusion that a region or environment does have an effect on its people, much how animals are suited to a different climate. On his journey, Steinbeck comes to the understanding that the innate Americanness is the frontier. It is being in connection with nature and people, by seeking out the unknown, doing away with roots and material, and by westering -- just as he did. Americans​, then, is Steinbeck’s journalistic conclusion to the trilogy, making bold assertions that the ailments of the American spirit were material and waste, and how they can fix it by reclaiming the frontier. In the book, Steinbeck analyzes the state of America today. He comes to suggest the existence of something called the Corporation Man, indicating that the American was becoming subject to corporations. Corporations dictate status, wealth, what one could own, and the necessity for all these things. These false anxieties are also passed along to children, the way the frontier myth was passed on to generations. Finally, Steinbeck asserted that after struggling to survive, we managed to perfect leisure. However, we aren’t mature enough to deal with it when there are still injustices in our own society. The photographs littered throughout the book point to a more diverse, hopeful America; a progressive America. These photos show the America Steinbeck hopes for, focused on the individual, one who is always participating in the frontier. The writings on the American spirit by a celebrated American author -whose work contributes to the American cannon and consciousness -- is worth taking seriously. It’s a trilogy whose tone and view deviate heavily from Steinbeck’s earlier, more celebrated work. That work, which was written under the survivalist pressures of the Great Depression, was patriotic, championed traditionally American values. The America trilogy is written in the shadow of 71 that, in the air of the Cold War. It is by a writer confused about the America that had emerged a product of the Great Depression and the Second World War. It is by a jaded progressive, who said “I’m not the young writer of promise any more” (​Letters​ 802). Yet, this is the John Steinbeck who won the Nobel Prize for his portrayal of America, who wrote this trilogy. More that, it’s also a framework for a method on how to reconsider the nationalist myths that are woven into the American body, which is both conflicting and ever-diversifying. It’s also a framework for reconsidering our national identity in eras of discontentment and confusion. With this, I would like to go forth and evaluate the success of the American trilogy. In a way, some of what Steinbeck has hinted at sounds like Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land," a song deeply woven into the fabric of American culture, which is where Steinbeck fails to connect and where his trilogy falters. When Steinbeck wrote, "our land is of every kind geologically and climatically, and our people are of every kind also—of every race, of every ethnic category -- and yet our land is one nation, and our people are Americans" (​Americans​ 12), I was instantly reminded of the song by Steinbeck reiteration of “our land.” Deeper consideration of the song and its themes point to a different, more progressive conclusion than the one Steinbeck draws. The problem with the frontier is that this doesn't apply to everyone. The frontier was a space in which certain kinds of people were not allowed to exist or prosper. It’s because of these borders that I cannot help but think that there is a piece missing from all of this. Guthrie's folk song has saturated American media since he recorded it in 1944. It's probably America's greatest known folk song. For a while, it was taught in schools and kids had to memorize it. However, there were a couple of verses omitted, specifically ones that talk about private property. The song 72 itself is a complete and heartfelt celebration of America. The song begins with the chorus, which is a gentle verse: This land is your land, this land is my land From California, to the New York Island From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me (1-4). This verse is beautiful and uplifting, wholesome and kind. I especially like the way Guthrie begins by affirming that the land is "your's" not just his. The idea of the collective America, the country, the identity, the land belonging to all of us together. It's similar to the way Steinbeck is reaffirming the idea of America for everyone. The land is ours, it's what we make of it. Note, also the similarities between Guthrie's lyrical journey -- from New York to California -- and Steinbeck's own journey across the country. Steinbeck even made a stop at the Redwoods (his dog, Charley, was very unimpressed). It's also important to note Guthrie's focus on nature, which is so endearing. For him, America is its land, and that makes America beautiful. Guthrie admires the American landscape in other ways, like "the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts" (10), when "the sun comes shining as I was strolling / The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling" (13-14). If you remember from ​Travels​, this sounds a lot like Steinbeck's experience with traveling America. It recalls his infatuation with Montana, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The nature of America is something he cherishes deeply. The abuse of it infuriated him in ​Americans​. But Guthrie's song shares more similarities, notably the presence of a journey, or westering. Guthrie narrates "As [he] was walking that ribbon of highway / [and] saw above [him] that endless skyway" (5-6). As well as how he "roamed and rambled and [he] followed [his] footsteps" (9). It's been well documented that Guthrie was a 73 wanderer. On trailcars or foot, sleeping on stoops, in cars, on porches. Woody Guthrie was a nomad who'd spend a night in jail if he needed a roof. Guthrie is a kindred spirit with Steinbeck who once said, "I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found" (​Travels​ 64). The two share the same sense of pride in the rambling, roaming America. Guthrie is one of those "restless people" Steinbeck made such a fuss about. Guthrie westers the way Steinbeck said we ought to if we're to survive. Further, Guthrie is participating in the frontier, with the American spirit as Steinbeck saw it, by wandering and being with nature and the people of America. Guthrie notoriously refused to have any more money than he needed, playing songs for spare cash here and there. He literally refused all capital. If anything, Guthrie and his life are the perfection of Steinbeck's vision. Brian K. Garman has a great book that looks at the most paramount of American folk heroes -- Walt Whitman, Woody Guthrie, and Bruce Springsteen. One of the things he touches on is how individual the experience of singing their songs and saying their words is. Garman writes, Much like a Whitman poem, "This Land," at least as it is sung in a vast majority of the tributes, represents things not as they are but as the author thinks they should be. And also like a Whitman poem, its romantic vision, which tries to realize the promise of freedom and equality, is often mistaken as an assessment of current social realities rather than an interrogation of them. To be sure few people know that Guthrie intended the song to serve as a Marxist corrective to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," and although biographer Joe Klein, Harold Leventhal, and Arlo Guthrie have publicized the fact since 1980, the song is so widely known and so widely sung that their efforts have had little impact on public perceptions of it. Because very few artists sing "This Land" in 74 its entirety, it is virtually impossible to distinguish its patriotism from Berlin's or even from more recent jingoistic songs such as Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." Like any other nationalistic anthem, it uncritically proclaims the United States the land of freedom and equality and lends credence to Guthrie's reputation, in the words of Stewart Udall, as a legendary artist who expressed "the sense of identification that each citizen of our country feels toward this land and the wonders which it holds" (186). Guthrie is singing about America as he wishes it would be, not as it is. When people sing "This Land is Your Land," they're participating in that vision, in believing in it. The song is steeped in this idealistic patriotism with a Marxist twist. Guthrie is both praising an America, while confronting the one he sees. When Guthried roamed America, it was both during the Depression and World War II, the same circumstances under which Steinbeck wrote his most celebrated works and the foundation for his sense of patriotism. Guthrie wrote the song in 1940, at the cusp of these two monumental moments. In a later verse, Guthrie sings, In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, By the relief office I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me? (Guthrie 20-24). The doubt in his voice is startling. This is the moment when Guthrie challenges his present, not his dream. How can this land be ours, when people are in line, starving from an economic depression? Guthrie's speaking to the war-soaked world around him. But this was an era when the country's national mentality was arguably the farthest left it's ever been. Guthrie was experiencing both 75 collective starvation and patriotic effort, bolstered by the widespread use of public land and the numerous social programs. From this, Guthrie envisions an even better America, one where these private property is eliminated, where all Americans are equal and taken care of. This reminds me of Steinbeck's own infatuation with the struggling Americans of the '30s, the "real poverty" (​Letters​ 701), he had called it. Even more, it reminds me of when Steinbeck said how "during the deep Depression, the federal government assumed responsibility for the health and well-being of all citizens. This was a true second revolution" (​Americans​ 49). For all his emphasis on struggle being the source of purity, he commends the government for taking the welfare of its people into its hands. When the government does that, Americans are connected, working together, acting together to ensure their survival. In fact, this "second revolution" sounds very Communist. Like Garman said, Guthrie was a Communist. "Like Whitman," Garner writes, "Guthrie’s radicalism was often created and contained by his faith in American democracy" (187). It’s interesting that during the Red Scare '50s and counterculture-driven '60s, Steinbeck -- who has lost so much of his hopeful, social eye -- is echoing Communist sentiment. It's even more interesting that this sentiment is so deeply woven into a culture that claims to reject it. One of the verses that often gets omitted from "This Land" is the fifth one, in which Guthrie sings, As I went walking I saw a sign there, And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me" (Guthrie 17-20). The side that doesn't say "No Trespassing," the free, open side, is the side that's made for you and me, for Americans. Americans deserve freedom -- to 76 roam, to collectivize, to work together. Is that not how Steinbeck undertook his journey across America? Squatting in public lands, in people's yards, talking with them to understand America? Steinbeck himself can't be identified as a Communist. He did dabble though. In 1963, the Cultural Attacheé to the American Embassy in Moscow "invited Steinbeck to visit the Soviet Union under the auspices of the Cultural Exchange Program" (​Letters​ 768). He went excitedly. What Steinbeck doesn't mention in his letters, though, is that "he and his wife spent as much time as they could with dissent writers' groups in small clandestine meetings, often late at night" (​Letters​ 785). Nonetheless, the FBI never tagged him for Communism, even though he kept in contact with these writers through his letters. Steinbeck's heroes were everyone, from ranchers, to Communists, to wanderers. His writings never leaned to a specific political identity -- save for socially mindful -- because "Steinbeck was not interested in philosophical theory divorced from lived experience" (Hart 32). Morality was important, but it didn't have a single face for Steinbeck. But therein lies the problem. Steinbeck's conclusions for, while hopeful, falls flat as it fails to logically follow its argument. The frontier is almost the answer. But Steinbeck maintains a naïveté concerning the experiences of minorities that simply restrains his conclusions from going far enough. Steinbeck places his hope in the hands of young people while never directly capitalism as the true enemy of both America’s progress and minorities. The frontier cannot be the answer because of its exclusionary nature. American capitalism is a derivative of the frontier, which was a place and idea of white success and the abuse of minorities. Native Americans, African Americans, and those understood to be “darker” on the racial scale -such as Germans, Italians, Greeks, etc -- suffered in the frontier. Because 77 Capitalism is sourced from an exclusionary, it cannot be the answer, as it also excludes and abuses minorities. Steinbeck fails where Guthrie succeeds. Guthrie carried the argument, the westering, the American spirit, to its natural conclusion. Guthrie’s Marxist view is a patriotic one. He wants an America in which everyone is taken care of, without the existence of equality, where our natural splendor can exist for everyone to use, but not exhaust. Guthrie’s vision of America sounds like the perfected version of Steinbeck’s frontier. Guthrie’s vision allows people to roam, to be one with the land and civilization. Steinbeck's vision will never come true so long as he maintains a Capitalist attitude toward it, so long as his frontier is exclusionary. 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