John Steinbeck Questions for Study and Discussion

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) is a famous American writer, who created novels, stories, plays and essays. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, and he is widely studied as one of the most important American authors of the 20th century. Here are a few questions for study and discussion.

• Where was John Steinbeck born? Did his birthplace figure into his writing?
  
  
• As a boy, he read Paradise Lost and Le Morte d'Arthur (among many other books). Can you see any evidence of these early favorites in his greatest works of literature?
  
  
• With which other writers would you compare John Steinbeck? How? Why?
  
  
• After spending so much of his writing career writing about contemporary topics, what do you make of the subject matter of his last book? Why did he write about codes of honor?