The Winter of Our Discontent

Just when I think there were no more classics to read… here comes another… The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.  This was his last novel written and a great one.  It is the story of Ethan Allen Hawley, a husband and father, down on his luck hailing from the upper-class society, but fallen from grace when his grandfather’s business (a whaling company) lost its main building to a suspicious fire.   Ethan, his wife, Mary, and their children struggle to make the daily expenses of living in Long Island circa the 1940s.  Ethan had lost some additional monies on an investment and now only has his wife’s small inheritance, which he is tempted to use for further investments.  Ethan works as the stock-person at the local grocery.  The owner, an Italian immigrant, works him hard.  Ethan lives by the adage of completing hard work, being honest, and never cheating others.  Ethan is tempted by his peers to rob a bank, take his wife’s inheritance for risky investments, take bribes from wholesalers, and have an affair with the local “fortune teller,” a friend of his wife.  But he does none of these, yet he is torn to change his family’s current fortunes.  He finally changes his situation through a series of well-planned actions, one of which he gets foiled from doing, robbing the local bank.    One of the secondary stories captures his son’s plagiarism of an entry for a national essay competition.  His response under the pressure at the end is alarming.  Ethan is an “everyman” character.  Many men face these same challenges, yet he does so without compromising his reputation and does end up restoring the memory of his grandfather.  What a great story… evil vs. good, which one will you choose?  Steinbeck is an expert author in character development and really knowing the culture of the society of the day.  He weaves in current affairs stories and really brings the reader to contemplate the choices his characters make and compares it to their own lives.  This is a must read.  Surprised I missed it along my own AP English class.