著者

山内 圭

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.28, pp.105-118, 1998

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First, the investigation was made into Steinbeck's descriptions of men and women. Originally his men work outdoors, and women at home. But, during this novel, men lose their lands, tools and jobs, and the original androcentric system no longer works. On the contrary, women's business such as cooking, washing and home-protecting invariably must continue. Thus women can keep their status. Then examinations of the human life cycle have been done. That is, birth, aging and death. Steinbeck thought the living have higher priority than both the dying and those who will be born. When aging is described realistically, it is sometimes considered as ugly. He makes candid descriptions of aging. He also describes the aged as respectable figures, respected in a very American way as ancestors and pioneers. A man dies after a life cycle. But men, as a whole, continue to live. In the Life Cycle as a whole, deaths, alternations of generations, mishaps and accidents are surely step-backs. But a death is not a 'full step-back,' but 'only half a step-back,' if it brings something helpful to the living, or if the person who is dying leaves something. This kind of idea is one of the underlying philosophies of the novel. Steinbeck built a frame of nature by putting the description of natural forces both at the beginning and at the end of the novel. In the frame, he describes men living despite of some step-backs, and praises them for their resilient attitudes.