John Steinbeck, American author and winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature
Shalom Goldman is Professor of Religion at Middlebury College, an author and contributing writer to Tablet Magazine. This is his essay on Steinbeck, Israel and America.
John Steinbeck’s Promised Land
Within days of his arrival in Tel Aviv, John Steinbeck, the recent Nobel laureate and one of America’s greatest bards, wrote back to the States singing Israel’s praises. “This country boils and burbles,” he told his editor at New York Newsday, “squirms and gallops with energy. If there is such a thing as a boisterous ferment, it is here. In most countries I have seen and lived in, everything that can be done has been done. In Israel, in spite of its 4,000 years of history, everything is to be done and as though for the first time. It kind of bears out what I have always felt—that only those people who have nothing to do and no place to go are tired. I see no evidence of weariness here.”
In his 1966 jaunt across Israel, Steinbeck found what he felt was lacking back home. He encountered a people flush with patriotism, loyalty, and enthusiasm for military service—a stark contrast to what he saw in the youth of the United States, who, he wrote, were “burning draft cards because war in Vietnam was intolerable.” As Jay Parini, Steinbeck’s biographer, noted, the great novelist “was intent on contrasting Israel’s energetic vision of itself with America’s loss of vision.”
and,
This sense of American decline permeates East of Eden, Steinbeck’s 1952 masterpiece. The novel takes its title and structure from the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis, a narrative that tells the story of the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain kills Abel for reasons that the biblical text leaves mysterious, and the story concludes with Cain’s departure from Eden. “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”
Steinbeck’s sprawling, 500-page opus can be understood as an elaborate midrash on this biblical story. In the novel, Steinbeck turns these two competing brothers into two families, the Hamiltons and Trasks of California’s Salinas Valley. After achieving an Edenic life in California’s Salinas Valley, the Hamiltons and Trasks lose their legacies through dissension and bitterness, ultimately reenacting the fall of man and expulsion from Eden.
This was Steinbeck’s haunting and prescient view of America even in 1952. America, though young and industrious had been through two World Wars, Great Depression in less than 30 years. It was fighting the Chinese proxy of North Korea to the east in a deadly war and staring down the Soviet Behemoth in Europe. Something was brewing in the spirit and soul of the nation and Steinbeck was worried.
In addition to his profound interest in the Hebrew Bible, Steinbeck had a family connection to the history of Israel. Both his paternal grandfather and his great-uncle had been members of Mount Hope, a small group of German and American Protestants that established an agricultural mission near Jaffa in 1853. The Steinbeck men were Germans married to American women. In Ottoman Palestine they hoped to convert local Jews to Christianity.
In January 1858, a dispute with local Arabs over a stray cow led to a vicious attack, during which Steinbeck’s grandfather was killed and his grandmother’s sister and her mother were raped. The attacks caused a diplomatic flare-up, with the Prussian and U.S. governments demanding justice from the Ottoman authorities. Soon after the attack, the survivors of the massacre left Jaffa for America, where they settled first in New England and later in California. In American diplomatic history, this incident is known as the 1858 “Outrages of Jaffa.”
It doesn’t appear the Palestinians have changed at all.
Read the entire essay.
Here is Shalom Goldman’s archive of Tablet columns if you are interested.
Photo Credit: ROLLS PRESS/POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
#67 Shannon,
My favorite Carole also. Beautiful in its simplicity.
We have ways of making you answer.
Waiting up for Rudolph to lead Santa’s sleigh through Richmond. Cold weather (for here) is coming with Christmas it seems. It will be nice to have that greet us tomorrow morning. Good Night All.
Surprise Christmas Eve Brunette Special!!
Well the chili was very good and after watching 2 Christmas movies, it’s past my bedtime. Shannon, I can’t carry a tune in a slop bucket but I do know that Mary Did You Know isn’t easy to master, I’m glad that you pulled it off. It still would be good to hear you and your partner’s rendition of it.… Read more »
Shannon, glad it went well – speaking from experience it is not only a very beautiful song but can be a very emotional one… It still amazes me to realize that He would have done all that He did for the salvation of all who accept Him had He known I was the only one in all of time that… Read more »
Hey Dr phil
Here’s another of my favorite Christmas songs…
50 Shannon
I’m so glad and I’m proud of you.
#67 Shannon: Indeed.
One of the great lines in film history:
“Yippie-Kai-Yay, m______ f______!”
– John McClane
For me, it is always about the lyrics. O holy night, the stars are brightly shining; It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn! Fall… Read more »
And since it is Christmas, perhaps you’ll indulge me posting this one, one more time. I have long wanted to do a duet of this song with the same singer that sang with me today. The song is just as challenging, but I came across this particularly simple arrangement last year and thought I could pull it off. But the… Read more »
Merry Christmas Hamsters, It would have been nice to have a snowfall tonight, but that only happens rarely this far south. Christmas music sounds wonderful with or without snow, and it can activate feeling as if snow is really falling here on Christmas Eve despite no snowflakes to be seen through the windows facing the yard lights. That was 9… Read more »
Transmissions are visionaries.
Who knew?
58 Mharper
It’s impossible to get a quality recording in the Sanctuary where we sing.
This is a mighty fine father/daughter duet of the same song.
Shannon what she said;
😉
Oh and I’ll check out phil’s magnum opus later. 😀
SIL fixed a big ole pot of chili and I helped, chopped up the onions N peppers. He just started the cornbread so we’ll be eating in a bit. Oh and Squawk N Texpat, no beans just Bambi chili meat. The recipe came from his east Texas Granny so it should be real good, sure smells good. I’ll have report… Read more »
56 Mharper
Yes. When something gets dumped into The Deep Trash, it takes several steps to salvage.
The WordPress Nazi is obviously a woman with a bad attitude.
#50
Shannon, any chance that you could somehow record some of your singing and post it here for us?
I guess I’ll fire up Die Hard on the Firestick. Watching our friend Bruce Willis repeatedly survive getting the crap beat out of him is so much fun. An interesting comment from Wiki: Die Hard has been critically re-evaluated and is now considered one of the greatest action films of all time. It is considered to have revitalized the action… Read more »
#46
Are you telling me that someone with the Keys to the Kingdom went in and SALVAGED Phil’s turtle masterpiece???
Huh?
From my vantage point, I watched this infant in the front row of the church, this afternoon. He/she sat and watched with interest the entire service, sitting on Daddy’s arm. Never a peep or a squirm. I stopped the family in the parking lot to comment on their very cool baby.
I have not watched Hans Gruber fall from Nakatomi plaza yet, so it’s still not official.
Merry Christmas all, and thanks for the verses there, Dr. Phil. Heading out in a few for the traditional Christmas Eve sushi.
8^]
I’m convinced the WordPress Nazi insists on inserting a skipped line every so often, just to piss me off.
WordPress and Apple often don’t see eye-to-eye.
I’m fully churched after two appearances. There’s no way I could sing at the upcoming late service… my voice is trashed.
I must say though, for the first time ever singing, my duet of Mary Did You Know went flawlessly. It felt very nice.
Must’ve been that second wafer. 🙂
Thx unck.
the formatting is not what I had but I’ll take it.
I copied and pasted from iPad notes so guess it gets hosed a little.
I had 4 line stanzas so when reading it it flowed much better.
Like magic, our own Dr phil appears in #46
Ok thx.
I give up.
tried twice again and poof they went.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, in the skullduggered White House, the wooden dummy, he wandered, and mumbled about, the medicine cabinet was empty, his Vitamultin had run out leaving him with a case, of very bad gout, the shadow administration, lurked in the west wing, fundamentally deforming America, pulling le dummy’s, puppet strings by the chimney, cocaine was placed, with… Read more »
Just got home, phil. I’ll see if I can dig it out.
43 phil
Didn’t see anything.
Or maybe someone else who has the power can free my post from captivity.
I got two big trays of keto “lasagna noodles” done. What I don’t use for lasagna I can use as bread in later meals; I’ve even used it for sandwiches, provided I cut the pieces big enough. I also made a batch of keto cinnamon rolls. I don’t know if I’m going to make the frosting since the cinnamon filling… Read more »
Didn’t work again Texpat if you want to retrieve it.
just tried a minute ago. I made a couple slight revisions so that’s the final draft.
Praying each and every one of you (and yours) have a marvelous Christmas… and I pray that none of you still have to make a “quick run” to HEB – no such thing today, at least not at my fav in Conore… be blessed and treasure the day – and the memories of Christmases past
The Washington Post has called for Claudine Gay to resign from Harvard. Paramount is in talks to take over CBS and CBS News and will be gone, period. 60 Minutes and their Sunday morning show will survive, but the news division will be gone. I think the toppling of the Champagne Network will trigger a huge earthquake of MSM creative… Read more »
Texpat @ 3:52 PM
And a happy and blessed Christmas to you and all the Hamous bunch.
TEXPAT SAYS:
May All My Dear Friends Here at Hambone.net and beyond have a…
Wonderful and Joyous Christmas With Your Families and Friends !
I got up early today (for me! early FOR ME!) and was pleased to see Billy Cat climb up out of the gazebo, when he heard me open the back door. I like to see him being SMART, and it is very smart to sleep in the driest place available to him. Thanks to Texpat for his salute at 7:10… Read more »
In The Chosen, the guy who plays Matthew should win every acting accolade that there is.
Now I have to go make some keto noodles for lasagna and some keto cinnamon rolls.
Y’all enjoy your day. I’ll be struggling in the kitchen before attending midnight mass.
I made a shawl a while back for a friend at church who has an a-hole of an ex and who has bankrupted her through legal challenges, trying to keep her from being with their autistic son. The poor woman has been through hell and back with him, but she keeps on fighting and I think she’s finally made some… Read more »
I love, love, love The Chosen. The way they weave the story lines in and around Scripture and make the names in the Bible into real people – love it. The first class I did each year with my students was a personality study. We used the book “Personality Plus” which is a fun, short read (the author is a… Read more »
This morning, the long-running CBS show Sunday Morning did a very nice feature on the wildly popular series The Chosen, which is a crowd-funded professional production about the life of Jesus. (Shot in Texas, by the way.)
Video here.
One service down, one to go at 4pm.
Pray for me. I’m doing a duet of Mary Did You Know. At least it is with our most talented soprano.
Merry Christmas, Hamsters.
Go ahead and delete.
I can repost it. If it doesn’t work I’ll let you know and you can post it.
I am sitting on an old Pennsylvania RR car in Whippany NJ. It’s called The Polar Express and the local drama students put on a show with a short train ride.
i know you’re wondering what I’m doing here.
Later.