The Winter of our Discontent

The Nobel Prize winning novel (1962) examines this question: Can one take a respite from good morals, do things totally out of character, and then switch back to good? That is the dilemma our protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, faces as he struggles to regain past family wealth and prominence. Published in 1961, this was the last novel that John Steinbeck finished. As with most of his novels, he was initially criticized for ‘making a mountain out of a molehill.' Steinbeck stated that he wanted to expose “the moral degeneration of American culture." He was later exonerated when the details of Watergate and Richard Nixon proved his point. This is the writer that also wrote The Grapes of Wrath (1939), displaying capitalism in a negative way and Of Mice and Men (1937), emphasizing man’s inhumanity to one another. If you haven’t read a Steinbeck novel...start with this one.

The novel’s time period is from Easter to the Fourth of July (1960) in the fictional town of Baytown, NY. Steinbeck fashioned this town out of his own hometown of Sag Harbor, NY. We find ex-GI, Ethan Allen Hawley, working as a clerk in Marullo’s Fruit and Fancy Groceries. While Ethan was fighting overseas in World War II, his father lost all the family’s wealth via wild wartime investments. The language of the times is sometimes offensive, such as, Ethan referring to his boss as the guinea, wop, or dago. Two other families of prominence in the novel are heading in different directions. Mr. Baker is the town’s banker and future political power, while Danny Taylor (from a good family) is now the town drunk. Ethan’s wife, Mary (of many cutesy names), has been putting pressure on Ethan to improve the family’s position.

His children, Allen and Mary Ellen, have entered a ‘I love America’ essay contest and also champion for a better life. Mary’s friend, Margie Young- Hunt, has read her fortune cards and states that Ethan is going to be rich. Mr. Baker wants Ethan to start investing in the town, and Ethan’s friend Joey Morphy (a bank teller) informs Ethan how the perfect bank robbery could be done. Ethan learns that Marullo might have come to the USA without papers (thus the term WOP). Can he get the store for himself, if he ‘rats out’ Marullo? Should he follow Mr. Baker’s seemingly wrong and nefarious advice? Are the kids writing their essays on the up and up? Why is Mr. Baker bribing Danny Taylor with booze and what is that paper he wants Danny to sign? Does Margie have a crush on Ethan? Is Ethan contemplating a bank robbery?

Since this is a story of the decline in American morality, there are many flaws in the eight main characters. Ethan is not the only one with morality issues, but he is the only one with a guilty conscious. On page 201, Ethan thinks to himself, "Temporarily I traded a habit of conduct and attitude for comfort and dignity and a cushion of security.” He thinks he can change back to a good guy, since he killed people during the war and didn’t become a murderer when he was discharged. The only shortcoming I found with this novel was that too much was packed into the last 59 pages. If he could have added a hundred pages, or so, the reader would have time to savor the many twist and turns that come at you one after another. The title of this classic comes from William Shakespeare’s Richard III . On page 264, Ethan toasted his son by saying, "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York.” He will think different in a few pages. All in all, this is a marvelous story, so typical of a John Steinbeck novel.

RATING:  5 out of 5 stars

Comment: According to Wikipedia: In 2012 (50 years later), the Nobel Prize opened its archives and it was revealed that Steinbeck was a "compromise choice" among a shortlist consisting of Steinbeck, British authors Robert Graves and Lawrence Durrell, French dramatist Jean Anouilh and Danish author Karen Blixen. The declassified documents showed that he was chosen as the best of a bad lot, "There aren't any obvious candidates for the Nobel prize and the prize committee is in an unenviable situation," wrote committee member Henry Olsson. Although the committee believed Steinbeck's best work was behind him by 1962, committee member Anders Osterling believed the release of his new novel The Winter of our Discontent in 1961 showed that "after some signs of slowing down in recent years, [Steinbeck has] regained his position as a social truth-teller [and is an] authentic realist fully equal to his predecessors Sinclair Lewis and Ernest Hemingway." I find this interesting, but I’m sure there is a unique story behind every Nobel Prize award.

Steinbeck’s first success was Tortilla Flat (1935): A story of a group of Paisanos enjoying life and wine drinking after World War I. As usual he was criticized, this time for writing a novel about bums. Critic Arthur C. Pettit said “Tortilla Flat stands as the clearest example in American literature of the Mexican as a jolly savage.” Oh well, this reviewer is still a fan of Steinbeck’s 27 books.