Finding Steinbeck's Utopia in Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat

My thesis will explore the idea of utopia that John Steinbeck intimates through the two novels Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, and how he crafts his utopia in concordant Marxist, social, and ecological frameworks. These two novels possess striking commentaries regarding Steinbeck’s views on social status, materialism, and freedom all in conjunction with his larger socio-ecological confines. It is in this symbiotic social interaction that Steinbeck crafts his utopia along with the physical landscape that constitutes Monterey. Written a decade apart, the two novels’ structural similarities suggest that Steinbeck maintained a consistent social vision, and that these two novels function as incubators for Steinbeck’s idea of a utopic society. Steinbeck’s romanticization of his childhood home reflects his left-leaning politics and social theories. The Salinas Valley that he creates is comparable to other utopic fabrications such as El Dorado or Milton’s Eden than the town that physically rests in California.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Roemer, Christian T.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stuart, Christopher
• Guy, Matthew; Hunter, Rik
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Steinbeck, John, -- 1902-1968 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Licence

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/138

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1271