John Steinbeck was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Having witnessed many of the major prime-time events of his life and incorporating them into his novels, his work has become famous primarily for its social conscience. John Steinbeck's reputation depends primarily on the simplistic proletarian-themed novels he wrote during the American Great Depression. (add grapes of wrath to thesis??)John Ernst Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902. He grew up in a fertile, agricultural valley about 25 miles from the Pacific coast, and at the both the valley and the coast. served as the main setting for some of his best novels. During his high school and college years, he worked on various ranches and as a farmhand to support himself. He attended Stanford University, where he only took classes that interested him and left without a degree. He traveled extensively during his life, notably throughout the United States, as shown by the meticulous description of Western lands at the beginning of almost all of his novels. (remarkable)The Grapes of Wrath (1939) was one of the most influential novels written in the 20th century. The protagonist, Tom Joad, returns home to Oklahoma after being incarcerated, only to find that his family and neighbors have left their farms. His former neighbor, Muley, tells him that everyone came to California looking for work and a better life. Tom and his friend Jim Casy meet up with the rest of the Joad family, en route to the promised land of California, only to realize that there were thousands of migrants ready to compete for the few hundred jobs available. Along the way, they encountered many people who were starving, star... middle of paper... concern and earned him a reputation as one of America's best authors. By incorporating historical, biographical, and labor perspectives, Steinbeck created a novel that opened readers' eyes and paid homage to man's will to survive. Works Cited"Biography of John Steinbeck - Life, family, children, history, School, mother, son, book, information, birth, home." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Internet. April 25, 2011. "The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck - Introduction." Literary criticism of the 20th century. Ed. Janet Witalec, project editor. Flight. 135. Gale Cengage, 2003. eNotes.com. 2006. April 25, 2011 grapes-wrath-john-steinbeck > Steinbeck, John and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 1992. Print.