Devoted readers, it is with a heavy heart that I must write this, my final opinion piece. I will not be returning to work for the Doane Owl after the Winter Break.
For a final opinion piece, I will be talking about something that is very important to me, that being my all-time favorite author, John Steinbeck. Steinbeck is most famous for his works “East of Eden” and “Grapes of Wrath”; however, while those are his best works in my opinion, those are also not his only works, he also wrote short stories such as “The Red Pony” and “Of Mice and Men,” a book I have admittedly not read.
Steinbeck’s writing style is unique, as the only description that I can give for it that feels accurate is that it is like a semi-omniscient historian is writing these stories and they have all the benefit because of that. The characters that Steinbeck develops go through so much, there’s a phrase that I learned from my creative writing class, “Hurt your darlings.” This means that you have to put your characters through hardships and trials and tribulations.
Steinbeck takes this philosophy and ramps it up to a degree where it feels like I’m reading a torture novel. For instance, in “East of Eden,” there’s a character who gets shot in the arm by his wife right after his kid is born. It’s moments like that which persist throughout his novels. But, right after he gets done hurting his darlings, he brings me back in with so much heartfelt characterization.
Steinbeck really is in a class of his own when it comes to the heart that he gives his characters. He puts them through so much, but their heart and their kindness never changes, and that’s why I love his works so much: it’s the heart.
Steinbeck doesn’t do fancy wordplay; he writes simply and he writes densely.
