Influence Of Culture In The Winter Of Our Discontent By John Steinbeck

A culture is created on whatever idea of reality is held by the majority of the people over a long period of time. These ideas are shaped based on the Commons theme theory and/or the Epoch theory. People and events directly influence the culture of an area and everywhere experiences this cycle of problems, solutions and effects. Utilizing problem, solution & effect the following discusses how the author reflects the culture in his book, The Winter of Our Discontent.
John Steinbeck shows many problems in the book that influence the culture of New Baytown in 1961. One big problem that the main character of the book, Ethan Allen Hawley, a former member of Long Island's aristocratic class, faces is his father losing the family fortune, and thus
He feels he is unsuccessful and failed at life because he is not wealthy with a high status in town. This is visible on page thirty-four in the book where Ethan and Mary are arguing about money and Mary states, “No, I don't love money. But I don’t love worry either. I’d like to be able to hold up my head in this town. I don’t like the children to be hang-dog because they can’t dress as good-as well-as some others” (Steinbeck,34). She continues, “It would wipe the sneers off people's faces of your holy la-de-das” (Steinbeck,34) Ethan replies, “No one sneers at Hawley” (Steinbeck,34). Mary says, “That’s what you think! You just don't see it” (Steinbeck,34). Ethan asks, “Do you blame me for my failure?” (Steinbeck,34). Mary replies, “No, of course I don’t. But I do blame you for sitting wallowing in it. You could climb out of it if you didn’t have your old-fashioned fancy-pants ideas. Everybody’s laughing at you. A grand gentleman without money is a bum” (Steinbeck,34). His wife Mary and their children
Ethan realizes that to survive himself he must change and adapt to the ruthless, heartless society around him (San Jose). He succeeds in having his boss deported back to Italy. After Marullo is taken into custody, he transfers ownership of the store to Ethan through the actions of the very government agent that caught him. Marullo gives Ethan the store because he believes Ethan is an honest and deserving worker who has worked for him for so many years (San Jose). Ethan also obtains the plot of land that his ex-childhood best friend owned. Danny wills him the land, slipped it under the door of the store. The will was drawn without any spoken agreement sometime after Ethan gave Danny the 1,00 dollars making it look like he was trying to get Danny sober. However, Danny uses the money to drink himself to death. Ethan become powerful in the town by taking possession of this strip of land that is needed by local businessmen to build an airport. Danny assures him that drunks are liars and that he will just drink the money away, and this is indeed confirmed when Danny is found dead with empty bottles of whiskey and sleeping pills (Wikipedia). Unfortunately, Ethan knew that this is what his friend would do with the money, and, therefore, knew he was going to cause Danny’s death (San Jose). The last blow hits when Ethan finds out that his son plagiarized the essay he submitted to the contest (San Jose). Ethan is badly