Steinbeck's Ethical Dimensions

Author(s): LUCHEN LI
Source: The Steinbeck Review, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring 2009), pp. 63-79
Published by: Penn State University Press
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 Steinbeck's Ethical Dimensions
LUCHEN LI

dramatic disclosures of unethical conduct in American life. We hear

American about dramaticabout

the society disclosures
the unethicalunethical
is witnessing of behavior unethical
behavior a of perplexing conduct
ofpublicpublic
officials, in time: American a embezzlement timeembezzlement
officials, life. marked We hear by by by
corporate CEO's, and corruption and misdemeanors in government offices and
bishoprics. It would be reasonable to say that we are in a process of searching,
re-evaluating, and re-tuning our ethical values. Steinbeck, as one of America's
most versatile and eloquent storytellers, was unabashedly such a searcher. As
he writes in East of Eden , "We have only one story. All novels, all poetry,
are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil" (415).
Steinbeck's narrative world, more suggestive than declarative, always has a
high moral purpose. Through his work of fiction and nonfiction, Steinbeck
has offered us a broad range of views with which we can reflect on American
ethics.

Steinbeck observes in America and Americans that "Ethics, morals, codes

of conduct, are the stern rules which in the past we needed to survive - as
individuals, as groups, as nations" (398). Throughout his career, Steinbeck
was an ethical writer, concerned with right and wrong choices and their
consequences. The majority of his writings, fictional and non-fictional, directly
address the moral contortions of individual Americans, their social groups,
and the nation as a whole. His perceptions of America's right-and-wrongs not
only penetrate all aspects of American society but also extend to the deepest
layer of individual psyches. For instance, The Grapes of Wrath and In Dubious
Battle question the government's ability to deal with poverty, natural disaster,
and labor disputes; The Winter of Our Discontent exposes how distorted values
can corrupt business professionals and government officials; Once There Was
a War, Bombs Away, and The Moon Is Down reveal the psychological and
moral challenges faced by soldiers; East of Eden reveals the dichotomy of good
and evil. Tortilla Flat , The Pearl, and Cannery Row probe the negotiation of
values between mainstream American culture and its subcultures; To a God
Unknown examines the human-versus-nature battle over the American land,
and finally Travels with Charlie in Search of America and America and Americans
provide a panorama of American society for us to reflect on our past, examine
our present, and determine our future. Because of Steinbeck's broad and

2009 The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies/Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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 LUCHEN LI

in-depth discussions of ethical issue

that the aesthetic nature of ethics in Steinbeck's work remains to be stud-

ied (George 99). To better understand the writer's ethical dimensions, an

overview is required of relevant texts and their implications regarding the
controversies over individual morals, religion, land, business, war, politics, and
culture.
To outline the ethics encoded in Steinbeck's work, we must first examine
the writer's views on moral codes, spiritual life, religion, and their relation to
nature, because Steinbeck makes it clear in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech
that all his "word" is about "man, and the word is with man. " Steinbeck finds
humanity to be the main concern of his writing because he believes that "only
the human heart in conflict with itself' is "worth writing about" (AA 172). Not
surprisingly, we do find in his stories characters whose hearts and spirits are
agonized in struggling to be morally decent. For instance, Cup of Gold presents
a picture of a dreamer, Henry Morgan, who eternally and internally searches for
happiness. With a lost soul, Morgan is looking for something he could never
find. It is not the plot in the novel that makes the book memorable; instead,
it is the vivid introspective picture of Henry Morgan's life and his character
that make readers think about their place and the purpose of living. In To a
God Unknown , Steinbeck tells the story of Joseph Wayne who is mysteriously
intuitive with himself and nature. The contexts concerning the moral dilemmas
in the book show how Thomas scolds Joseph for observing animals mounting
to multiply their population, which parallels Joseph's own desire for a wife
so the land where he settles will produce. The controversial scene in which
Thomas's wife, Rama, Joseph's sister-in-law, steals into Joseph's bed to have
sex with him as a symbol of worship blurs the difference between incest
and holiness. Steinbeck shares with D.H. Lawrence the ability to portray the
complexity of sex and individual morality through depictions of human beings'
naturalistic, or rather animalistic, characteristics.
A more excruciating moral dilemma of human behavior that Steinbeck
has exposed to the reader is the challenge to traditional concepts of friendship,
loyalty, heroism, morality, and nobility. The ethical implication on these issues
is found in Of Mice and Men , Cannery Row, Burning Bright , East of Eden ,
The Winter of Our Discontent , and Steinbeck's unfinished re-writing of Morte
d'Arthur. Probably the most heartbreaking scenes are in Of Mice and Men when
Carlson shoots Candy's old dog to end its misery and George pulls the trigger
to end Lennie's life so as to save him. Although these scenes have posed the
cruelty-versus-sympathy debates, Steinbeck commends Carlson's loyalty to the
dog and George's friendship with Lennie. Different from the ordinary moral
judgment, Steinbeck calls George's deed heroic. Such heroism is also found in

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 STEINBECK'S ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

Of Mice and Men (1939) publicity still, wit

(Lennie). Photo by Peter Stackp

Dora and the girls of Bear Flag in Ca

Cannery Row are not without nobil
shifts in looking after the sick fam
the boys, who may possess many h
saints and martyrs.
Steinbeck's defiance of conform
and overt in his later works. His no
celebrating the virtues of love, loy
presents Mordeen as a loving and de
Joe Saul, who passionately desire
with the happiness for which he
unfaithful to him. When Joe find
child, he is put in a painful situatio
virtues and vices. When compare
such as Hemingway's sperm-ridde
real human being with a more ph
higher dimensions than most peo
one among the entire humanity and
one whole. By treating the child as
limitations of "mechanical mascul

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 LUCHEN LI

Perhaps the most vexing for reade

beck's concept of good and evil, virtue
of Our Discontent . In East of Eden , S
the biblical Cain-Abel theme to illustrate how the most virtuous favorite son

can be a weakling whereas the shrewd rival may be the one who survives.
The major theme of East of Eden is not simply a moral dilemma over good
and evil or the mixture of both; rather, Steinbeck problematizes the repetitive
punishment for the errors in human choices. East of Eden is not a story of the
fall of humanity. On the contrary, it is a story of a species which can make
moral choices. Steinbeck alludes to the morals of human choices in his Nobel

Prize speech, saying that modern society has "usurped many of the powers we
once ascribed to God," and, therefore, "we have assumed lordship over the
life and death of the whole world of all living things." According to Steinbeck,
humanity is entrusted with the dreadful burden of choice, a dangerous but
glorious responsibility that can finally test our perfectibility as individuals and
as a species. This self-incurred responsibility has been put to noticeable work
in The Winter of Our Discontent and The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble
Knights. Ethan Allen Hawley's "revelation" that a gentleman without money
is nothing but a bum urges him to betray his faith in honesty and in love
and further leads him to accept what he used to despise as vice. Steinbeck's
rendering of the love between Lancelot and Guinevere in Arthur yields a more
refreshing concept on morality. The adulterous love between Lancelot and
Guinevere, in Steinbeck's lexicon of ethics, is more of a modern aberration
rather than a medieval vice. In Steinbeck's view, although he fails the test,
Lancelot still remains noble.

Steinbeck's perception and depiction of individual humans are often

deeply rooted in his insight into the doctrines of western religion, particularly
Christianity. Quite a few of his books not only nefer to biblical themes but also
interrogate the validity of the long-held morals of western civilization. To a
God Unknown , The Grapes of Wrath, and East of Eden are just a few major works
which mark Steinbeck's artistic elucidation of the Bible and Christianity. Often
the writer emulates metaphorical allusions to other religious counterparts of
Christianity. In To a God Unknown, Joseph Wayne's objects of worship include
earth, rocks, rain, and the old tree, a symbol of his dead father. His religious
conflict with Christianity not only lies in his tension with his brother Burton, a
pious believer of the god of his Calvinist ancestors. Joseph's hesitance to follow
the church is also symbolized when he pours wine on the tree and onto the
ground and finally walks away from Father Angela. "This is not a good thing
to do," the priest warns Joseph, and further comments on Joseph's ceremony
with contempt:

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 STEINBECK'S ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

The Devil has owned this country

for a very few. And as in a newly
are practiced a long time, sometim
slightly to comply with the teno
some of the old habits persist, e
(267)

But the irony in the novel is that

Joseph sacrifices himself, much in
life, to save the farm and the cattle
opening his arms to form a cross on
worship - worship of the sun, the l
is almost entirely without religious
with a mysterious intuition, who
against the Christian doctrine. To
are often the means by which hum
As the narrator makes clear in East

The church and the whorehouse arrived in the Far West simul-

taneously. And each would have been horrified to think it was a

different facet of the same thing. But surely they were both intended
to accomplish the same thing: the singing, the devotion, the poetry of
the churches took a man out of his bleakness for a time, and so did
the brothels. (EE 217)

By juxtaposing and equating their end result, Steinbeck places "church

and . . . whorehouse" on a level, thereby challenging the hierarchy of higher
and lower things.
Another unusual set of morals in Steinbeck's work regard humanity's
perplexing relation to nature. Steinbeck often sets his characters vis--vis their
environment, and this is typified by how early settlers treated land and how
land is fairly or unfairly used in America. To a God Unknown , East of Eden ,
and Travels with Charley in Search of America all present ethical dilemmas
over the American land. In expressing his philosophy about the relationship
between human beings and nature, Steinbeck brings the tragedy of the land
onto stage. The constant struggle between the human species and land has an
indispensable implication in several of Steinbeck's books. This tragic image
finds itself in his general depiction of how we interact with land. In revealing
the conflict between humans and nature, Steinbeck exposes the westering
impulse as human's material desire for more. As Joseph Wayne, in To a God
Unknown , and Adam Trask, in East of Eden , show us, the desire to conquer

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 LUCHEN LI

the land indicates our human instinct

wilderness. Eden in both these novels

by abundance, purity and simplicity un

Wayne and Adam Trask, notice the e
contradictions like good and evil.
Traditionally, the American West
for people to act on their dominant r
invokes an opposite rhetoric. In To a
a Christian pioneer to fight the wild
the beginning of the story, Steinbec
anxious to march to the West with a
the history of central California at the
Steinbeck presents a similar picture of
describes a human figure, a man who is
are the green pastures of Heaven to wh
protagonist (3-4). In American literatur
to show pioneers moving to the wes
savages. Wilderness is often regarded a
is related to the long Western tradition
vacuum, a cursed and chaotic wastela
battled wild country not only for pers
race, and God. As Roderick Nash ha
enlightening darkness, ordering cha
morality play of westward expansion
pioneer was the "hero" (25). Joseph Way
with Christian doctrine. But Steinbeck t
call of the west. Instead of considering
as the human worldly desire to expand t
Wayne, his Lord is his father, who befo
his brothers westward. Besides the par
piece of land, in Steinbeck's view, is
Steinbeck portrays Joseph as a "civil
a living body. This animal imagery is b
when Joseph Wayne, caught up in a so
sexual need, flings himself face downw
the land itself. As such, Joseph is no
regards it as a sensuous woman. Read
be related to

live on Mother nature. The initial urge to return to

maternal landscape has consequently changed into

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 STEINBECK'S ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

act upon that same femininity

not simply the Mother that nu
compared to the tragedy of Oed
Joseph Wayne owes his tragic en
symbol that nurtures his family.
western land," Steinbeck once not
belongs "not to a particular mome
to all time" (Gray 25). Indeed, as
men" ( TGU 68).
It seems that in Steinbeck's eth
for individual or corporate purpo
causes individual and national c
pastoral union of mankind with n
man with his spirit of conquerin
(89). But unfortunately, "The fem
and cultivated if it is to provid
they so desperately want" ( The
both mother and bride to a mas
pleasure. Steinbeck's understandin
parallels Meeker's analogy of th
the beginning of The Grapes of W
of the gray country of Oklahom
"civilized" by the system of capit
here that goes beyond denunciati
symbolize. There is a failure here
Steinbeck's ethical dimension
metaphorical discourses on indiv
and relation to nature. The write
politics, business, and culture.
and antipathy may help rationa
aspects of Americans and Americ
As a result of his philosophy w
one with nature and should peace
other - an existence continually m
and competition, a condition he d

We have looked into the tide po

and reproducing and killing fo
them and, out of long watchi
their habits . . . but we do not

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 LUCHEN LI

as a species. It is one diagnostic trait

of individuals are periodically infect
which causes the individual to turn on
kind, but the works of his own kind.

In diagnosing the ethical drawbacks of

to the hectic nineteenth century in bo
ines the American experience not on
with a sense of moral judgment on the
admonishes us in East of Eden : "Think
oceans, torn with complexities, too big
British took us on again. We beat them
we had was a burned White House an
pension list" (130). Here we find Stei
dilemma and consequence on individual
and international conflicts. Similarly, r
Steinbeck writes: "the soldiers went
Nobody knows why you go to a picnic
and pleasant to eat at home" although
land for the United States (130). To S
have appeared to be full of evils: slaver
over the evil century was urgent, and

"To hell with that rotten century!

Let's get it over and the door closed shut on it!

have clean hands once we get the lid slammed sh

century" (EE 130).

Sadly though, Steinbeck's expectation of the new

by the strike battles on the farm, the two world w
about which Steinbeck has written extensively in
America and Americans Steinbeck observes the
international conflict on the people: "Americans
obsessed with tensions. Nerves are drawn tense a
up and spill over into violence largely in meaningle
(AA 394-5). Noticeably whether in In Dubious Ba
and The Moon Is Down , or the journalistic Bombs A
a War, readers can always find Steinbeck's moral
war between nations and fights between social class
Is Down , although Steinbeck's sympathies are with
Nazi-occupied town, he focuses broadly on the natu
war crisis. The complexity of The Moon Is Down do

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 STEINBECK'S ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

Colonel Lanser (Cedric Hardwicke) an

in The Moon is Down (1944).

military conflict between Nazis a

reduces all the military conflicts t
confronting sides. For example, M
situation, his fear of the choices
Mayor Orden, "I am a little man
be a spark in little men that can b
afraid, and I thought of all the thi
On the other side of the confronta
"1 want a girl. I want to go home.
pretty girl" (68). The story is not a
involved in war, their love of peac
of humanity. Steinbeck is not inter
soldiers, GI's or lieutenants. Steinb
eye for detail evoke the human sid
on the battlefield. Steinbeck, years
and behavioral reaction to war in his "Introduction" to Once There Was a War :

In addition to being dangerous and dirty, a great many of the things

a soldier had to do were stupid. He must therefore be reassured
that these things he knew to be stupid were actually necessary and
wise, and that he was a hero for doing them. Of course no one even
casually inspected the fact that the infantry private had no choice. If

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 LUCHEN LI

he exercised a choice, he was either

prison for life, (xii-xiii)

Steinbeck's humanistic concern ove

writings. In Bombs Away , instead of
"Fortress" and "Liberator" and the ma
portrays the life of each of the six bo
the story of the lives of the bomber
Americans who went through the rig
of each, from his boyhood through h
are so realistic that one cannot but fe
cousin, son, or nephew. Although Stei
and marching" but a mechanized war
target is.
To understand the broad spectrum of Steinbeck's ethical dimensions,
we should not neglect the writer's views on politics. This is not because
Steinbeck's early novels stirred the nation with his narratives labeled "left,"
"political," or "proletarian," but because the writer had kept very close con-
nection to politicians and participated actively in American political life. More
importantly, Steinbeck never obscures the moral foundations of his political
beliefs in novels, essays, or interviews. Steinbeck once told an interviewer
that he was partisan, not necessarily in his art, but certainly in politics of
the field. He was a veteran Democrat, who told stories as parables and put
in terms of human action the morality - or immorality - of society as he
knew it. For example, Democratic values once led him to believe that the
Presidential election of 1960 was all about searching for an American Arthur
(personified in the President John Fitzgerald Kennedy), who he hoped would
be able to solve the many problems America faced at the time. Steinbeck
did not hesitate to tell an interviewer that the Eisenhower-Nixon Admin-

istration "made it socially fashionable to be stupid!" (Fensch 75). As for

the national cynicism on American politics, Steinbeck reasoned, "It is our
national conviction that politics is a dirty, tricky, and dishonest pursuit and
that all politicians are crooks. The reason for this attitude is fairly obvious -
we have had cynical and dishonest officials on all levels of our government"
(340).
Steinbeck's moral judgment of the American social and political temper-
ament is often rooted in his fear that one's feverish nervousness to reach goals
through unethical means will break down the integrity of individuals, whether
they be politicians or businesspeople. He fears that such moral breakdowns
will jeopardize the decency of a society. During the Great Depression, not only

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 STEINBECK'S ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

did the general population panic,

The moral foundation in business
pounds for a quarter. One third of
there was governmental relief; bu
tasted like "dry laundry" because
from Government-bought cattle h
(AA 23). In The Grapes of Wrath St
Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and Arkan
little "cropper lands" were driven
of banks and finance companies. S
Corporate America:

In America we have developed t

family, his future - as well as his
His training, his social life, the ki
and his wife wear, the neighborh
cost of his house and furniture are
His position in the pyramid of ma
size of his salary and his bonuses.

Here he encapsulates the American

away at moral values.
In "Americans and the Future,"
the disease that has permeated the A
spread and danger of the cancero
creeping, evil thing that is invading
economic, spiritual, and psychic.
and deadly. "Immorality does not d
does dishonesty. We might coin t
if America is becoming a nation t
Steinbeck's view, our initial purpose
plenty of food and comfort, he "stro
disintegration grows out of our lac
Steinbeck's writing, we see people t
and nervousness and covetousness
the so-called successful men "sick
and he thinks that Mack and the bo
clean. In both Cannery Row and East
admire in men, kindness and gener
and feeling are the concomitants of
detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitive

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 LUCHEN LI

Publicity still from the Television produ

featuring Henry Fonda, 1967.

are the traits of success. And while m

love the produce of the second" (C
America and Americans: "It's a rar
report bribery, malfeasance, and man
of the public officials who have used
for personal gain" (396). Steinbeck
with him his concerns over the m
creeping, all pervading, nerve-gas of
and does not stop before it reaches
governmental." The other drive for u
a hunger, a thirst, a yearning for s
(AA 108). With this, Steinbeck well
nature, we cannot conquer in ourse
introduces paradoxes about humanity
his gaudiest achievement has been t
Nobel acceptance speech, Steinbeck
must seek in ourselves for the respon
some deity might have. Man himself
only hope," because, "The danger and

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 STEINBECK'S ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

man." As he observes, Americans hav

searching people (AA 331).
In contrast to mainstream Americ
to readers cultural values of other
Anglo-American values are often jux
themes. For example, Steinbeck's sto
endless land for expansion and conve
of cultures. In doing so, the writer
different ethnicities, a new picture o
a "cultural frontier." On this cultural frontier we find Steinbeck's characters of

different ethnicities interacting and communicating. As Steinbeck observes in

America and Americans:

Many white people, after association with the tribesmen, have been
struck with the dual life - the reality and super-reality - that the
Indians seem to be able to penetrate at will. The stories of travelers in
the early days are filled with these incidents of another life separated
from this one by a penetrable evil; and such is the power of the
Indians' belief in this other life that the traveler usually comes out
believing in it too and only fearing that he won't be believed. (18)

Steinbeck understands that the early story of America is about the encounter
between the white people and the natives; yet here Steinbeck's narrative differs
from the picture of the frontiersmen civilizing the natives as they conquer
the west. Here the two groups seem to understand each other at a far deeper
level: white people associate with the tribesmen; the Indians are also able to
understand the white folks.

The cultural communication between the Anglo-Americans and other

people of minority groups plays an important role in To a God Unknown, East
of Eden , and Tortilla Flat. Steinbeck's approach to the story of the American
West, with its sociocultural implications, transforms the wild west into a stage
on which the drama of shaping the American character and American culture is
played. On this stage, we perceive how the long-existing ethnic cultures in the
west help shape the American theme in history and literature. Steinbeck was
concerned as well with issues of Black and White, stating with some passion
that

any attempt to describe the America of today must take into account
the issue of racial equality, around which much of our thinking and
our present-day attitudes turn. We will not have overcome the trauma
that slavery has left on our society, North and South, until we cannot

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 LUCHEN LI

remember whether the man we just

orwhite. (America and Americans , 6

Here Steinbeck depicts the moral obli

and respect for the "other."
Whereas people from different eth
bers from another group as "other
Paisano, and Mexican characters. Bu
characters or depict them as lesser bei
In his novels we find that although t
weaker, their ways of life and philos
Steinbeck mentions by name nearly s
seven works: The Pastures of Heaven
Long Valley , Cannery Row, The Wayw
Row , Steinbeck uses ethnic character
Examples include the Indian Tularecit
"ancient wisdom"; Gitano in "The G
"some unknown thing"; Pepe in "Flig
of Big Sur; the "old Chinaman,' who
at dusk in Cannery Row; and the Chi
reliant and wise "self' characters, s
roles in East of Eden. These ethnic
because they represented a vision t
The Pearl Steinbeck presents a similar
life - the old song of the family -
destroys that ancient harmony. Th
conflict in the civilized world, and it
but also their aggressive power over
has no value in itself; it is human soc
and measurement of man's materia
identified with the process of human
against nature to satisfy our excessiv
Having briefly examined Steinbe
wrong choices in individual life, and
summarize the writer's overall positi
the moral "basis" on which Steinbec
makes his own statements about ethi
this "basis" may be justified in the co
According to Aristotle, virtue may
of an action, or as the quality of a

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 STEINBECK'S ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

fiction, it seems that the virtue

George pointed out, Steinbeck's l
The Winter of Our Discontent , h
broad social issues to the interna
which includes "such subjects as em
(266-276 Beyond Boundaries ). Geor
early and later fiction in regards t
minating. Steinbeck's fictional w
lively pictures of manners and em
inflame our natural love of virtu
justness as well as delicacy of obs
correct and to ascertain our natura
of conduct, whether it is about
business.

Bringing forth his moral standards, Steinbeck combines reason and

passion. The source of virtue in Steinbeck's ethics lies in his development
of the ideas so as to explain the source and nature of conscience, i.e. of a
man's capacity to judge his own actions and especially of his sense of duty.
The basic judgment of right and wrong concerns the agent's motive, rather
than the effect of one's action. Steinbeck's own emotions as a spectator of the
suffering of the migrants workers did not simply fall short of what is felt by
the sufferers; instead, his naturally sympathetic emotions urged him to con-
ceive a strong passion which naturally animates the deep morals concerning
the survival of humankind. The imaginary scene of Rose of Sharon feeding
a dying man is founded and permanently printed on the reader's mind. The
moral sentiment beneath Steinbeck's sympathy responds well to the conscience
for man's survival. All the members of human society stand in need of each
other's assistance, much like the case of George and Lennie. The necessary
assistance is reciprocated from love, from gratitude, from friendship, and
sympathy. Only when we put reason and passion in the same context, can
we understand George's heroism, the sublime of Rose of Sharon who offers
her breast to the dying man, and the moral beauty of the girls from Bear Flag.
Steinbeck calls these people saints and tells their stories as poems.
Steinbeck always had a strong passion and confidence in Americans in
the complex thinking about the human-nature dilemma. He finds beauty and
virtues in many Americans, and he strives to spread the sense of virtuousness
extensively among his readership. As Steinbeck stresses in his Nobel speech,
he believes that the function of fiction is to foster moral and spiritual growth
by exposing "our many grievous faults ... for the purpose of improvement."
As a writer, Steinbeck felt the responsibility to re-inspect the American moral

Steinbeck Review 77

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 LUCHEN LI

system. Challenged by reports on chi

uals of the city, state, and federal go
ponders, "Maybe nothing can be do
naively hopeful enough to want to tr
"reason" for him to write The Winte
reveals the vulnerable point of Am
a group or an individual cannot sur
individual only survives well when
people are losing their ability to be
worthy is Steinbeck's belief that "People are not basically immoral

want to be moral but it takes a little courage" to b

his knowledge of humanity's many weaknesses, fault
his hopefulness for the perfectibility of humanity,
a unique set of moral discourses. His novels, short
helped in defining and refining much of American e
to negotiate our moral responsibilities to our own
society, environment, and ultimately the very surviva
are Steinbeck's ethical dimensions.

Acknowledgment
This article resulted from a grant-in-aid research (associated with the John Dit-
sky Award) at the Archives and Special Collections of the Ball State University
Libraries in September 2008. I would like to express my sincere appreciation
to the staff at BSU's Special Collection Department for their assistance. My
special thanks go to John B. Straw, Assistant Dean, for his arrangement for
my research trip to Muncie and his help during my research. I also wish to
express my deepest gratitude to Professor Tetsumaro Hayashi for his noble
deeds in establishing the Steinbeck Archives at Ball State University and his
leadership in Steinbeck scholarship for decades. This project would not have
been possible without the support from Mrs. Sue Ditsky, who generously
contributed funds in honor of her late husband and renowned Steinbeck

scholar Dr. John Ditsky.

Works Cited
Cousins, Norman. "Hemingway and Steinbeck" in Saturday Review , 33, October, 1950.
Ditsky, John. Essays on East of Eden. Muncie, IN: John Steinbeck Society of America,
Ball State University, 1977.
Ehrenfeld, David. The Arrogance of Humanism. New York: Oxford PU, 1978.

78 Steinbeck Review

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All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 STEINBECK'S ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

Fensch, Thomas. Ed. Conversations wi

1988.

Gardiner, Robert W. "Between Two Worlds: Humans in Nature and Culture." Environ-
mental Ethics , Vol. 12, Winter 1990.
George, Stephen. John Steinbeck : A Centennial Tribute. Ed. Stephen George. Westport,
Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 2002.

2005.

Gray, James. John Steinbeck. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1971.

Kolodny, Annette. The Lay of the Land. Chapel Hill: The U of North Carolina P, 1975.
McElrath, Joseph R. Jr. et al. John Steinbeck: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 1996.
Meeker, Joseph W. The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972.
Nash, Roderick. Wilderness and the American Mind. New Haven: Yale UP, 1967.
Shillinglaw, Susan and Kevin Hearle. Eds. Beyond Boundaries: Rereading John Steinbeck.
Tuscaloosa: The U of Alabama P, 2002.
Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1976.
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. New York: Penguin, 1992.

Timmerman, John. "John Steinbeck: An Ethics of Fiction."

nial Tribute. Ed. Stephen George. Westport, Connecticu
Group, Inc., 2002.

Luchen Li (Ph.D. Oregon) is a professor at Ketterin

Michigan. He has published numerous books and article
His current research concerns the cultural, philosophic
sions in Steinbeck's works. Professor Li serves the Joh
America as its Vice President for International Relations.

Steinbeck Review 79

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