Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Steinbeck, John, --1902-1968; Love in literature;
Abstract
The consistency with which John Steinbeck evaluated his characters by revealing the nature of their commitments indicates the importance of love as a motivational and thematic force in his work. In every novel that he wrote from 1933 to 1961, the characters were defined by the extent to which they loved and were loved. They were enlarged by belonging to and being responsible for the thing they loved. They were diminished by rejection or failure in love. Love, in the Steinbeck novels, included a wide variety of commitments that shared, in addition to a common function in the lives of the characters, certain common characteristics. For a commitment to function as love in Steinbeck novels, there had to be mutual need in the relationship. Even if a character's ties were related to a concept, an animal, or a group, rather than to an individual, he had to feel needed in order to experience any return of his devotion. Unless he was needed, he could not feel important enough in the relationship to really give himself to it. Mutual need as a prerequisite is one of the characteristics of. love about which Steinbeck was explicit. He was, moreover, quite explicit in his examination of the patterns, or rites, that expressed love and enhanced its growth. Steinbeck's characters professed their love in symbolic actions more frequently than in words. Their gifts of time, their patient understanding, their sacrifices were rituals of love by which the depth of their commitment was measured. Ritual self-sacrifice is an aspect of love that repeatedly occupied Steinbeck's attention. He pictured sacrifice and responsibility as the glory of love rather than its peril, for it was through the acceptance of responsibility and loving sacrifice that his characters were fulfilled. He did not explain why fulfillment was so frequently accomplished through sacrifice; he only "reported" that it so occurred.. Steinbeck was apparently content to leave much unexplained and unanalyzed in human relationships. He seldom tried to intellectualize or rationalize basic human responses and needs. His acceptance of the basic normality of affectional commitment is reminiscent of Antoine De Saint-Exupéry's conclusion: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
Year of Submission
1972
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of English Language and Literature
First Advisor
Keith McKean
Second Advisor
George F. Day
Third Advisor
Stanley G. Wood
Date Original
1972
Object Description
1 PDF file (59 leaves)
Copyright
©1972 Dorthy S. Cummings
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Cummings, Dorthy S., "Only With the Heart -- A Consideration of Love in the Novels of John Steinbeck" (1972). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2424.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2424
Comments
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