The Winter of Our Discontent (John Steinbeck)

The Winter of Our Discontent is my first real experience with Steinbeck. Yes, at fifteen I did try to read The Grapes of Wrath, but I hardly made it past the first chapter. At that point in my life, Steinbeck moved much too slowly for my taste. I preferred the westerns of Louis L'amour or the thrillers of Alistair Maclean, but time changes taste. I enjoyed the gentle pace and realism of this book in a way I would not have five years ago.

I understand why The Winter of Our Discontent has become a go-to text for many English courses. Although I've never had to read it in class myself, some of my fellow English-majors have. It is much more than a simple story about a shop clerk named Ethan Hawley who fondly remembers the days when his family--a founder of the town he lives in--had wealth. It is a novel about the corruptness of America (or any country if you will), about those who bend the law and compromise morals for their own benefit, using the excuse that everybody does it. In Ethan's world, being good and virtuous gets him nowhere. It is only through betraying friends and sending them towards ruin that Ethan has a chance to regain some his family's lost status and wealth. As a quote from the book says, "Strength and success--they are above morality, above criticism." Ethan is persuaded to believe  that the ends (wealth) justify the means.

One of my favourite features of the book is the way Steinbeck connects the past to the present. Ethan recalls his family's past glories and actions, many of which bordered on moral ambiguity. Even his own acts of murder during war are justified only in his mind because of circumstances. He uses the moral ambiguities and justifications of the past to help justify his actions in the present.

In the end, this book was well worth the quarter I paid for it at a library book sale. Yes, my copy is battered, but the more worn a book, the less guilty I feel about writing in the margins and attaching the occasional underline, which I am prone to do when a quote catches my eye. I found a number of eye-catching quotes in this Steinbeck.