John Ernst Steinbeck was born at a time so that he would grow up and mature during some of the United States’ most diverse and dramatic times. He was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. The date of his emergence to life are so vital to how he was molded as an author. He grew up in a time where America itself was doing a lot of soul searching and experienced everything from the aftermath of the American Renaissance to the Great Depression, all of which makes itself known in different works of his. Equally as important as the time period in which he grew up—his parents played an enormous role in his way of thinking. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, Sr., was the son of a German immigrant, while his mother, Olive Hamilton, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant. Though they were the children of immigrants, the newly married John and Olive Steinbeck lead a stable, middle class life, even as they later raised four children. His mother and her Irish background places a more romantic vibe to his works as well as a dreamer attitude, while his father’s Germanic heritage lead to him to think like a hardheaded naturalist as well as being a masculine tough guy—the mix of these lead to a variety of the nature of his works (Begrquist 7). …show more content…
He was encouraged by his mother as a child to delve into reading and weighting as well as her supplying him with classic English and American works of literature (Millichap 7). These things lead to his passion for writing which he settles on after he quit Stanford University in 1925 because he’d been going on and off for six years but never earned a degree. He continued his wishful dream of being a novelist despite his parents’ protests throughout his young adulthood writing light and romantic works without any real success whilst working odd and ends