An Introduction to John Steinbeck

In this course, students will become familiar with John Steinbeck and one of his most famous works, The Grapes of Wrath. Students will learn about the hardships of the Dust Bowl and the influence it had on art and culture. Along with Steinbeck’s text, students will listen to selections from Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads and will compare and contrast Guthrie’s interpretation with The Grapes of Wrath. Seeing as The Grapes of Wrath is considered one of Steinbeck’s “big books,” students will be reading this book closely so they can have a rich understanding of all that this great book has to offer. Themes discussed in this course will vary from travel and hospitality to identity and perseverance. Students will be asked to think about hardship and what it means to survive. This course will introduce them to one of America's great novelists and to a time period that deserves to be remembered for the people and art that it produced. Along with relevant reading assignments and weekly reading questions, students will receive four writing assignments. For this text, students will write a 500-to-1,000-word paper discussing its themes and, near the end of the quarter, a 3,000-word major research paper.

Course Objectives:

1. Students will gain an understanding of who John Steinbeck was.
2. Students will engage with The Grapes of Wrath and learn about the people of the Dust Bowl.
3. Students will learn about Woody Guthrie and his contribution to Dust Bowl literature.
4. Students will learn how to conduct research.
5. Students will become involved in scholarly conversation by incorporating secondary sources into their research assignments.

Text:

• John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath