On The Theme Of Salvation Of The Underclass In Tortilla Flat And Cannery Row

John Steinbeck(1902-1968) was one of the most influential writers in America in 20 th century, who received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature. Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row are his two famous novels, both describing the casts of misfits and have-nots during the period of Great Depression and the Second World War. Compared with Steinbeck‘s serious attack on bourgeoisie in the Grapes of Wrath and other works, some critics think Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row show Steinbeck‘s flinch on bourgeoisie criticism. As a matter of fact, this viewpoint ignores Steinbeck‘s reflection standing on the underclass‘s point to consider how to save underclass themselves. Based on Erich Fromm‘s interpretation of love, this paper tries to analyze Steinbeck‘s reflection in order to dig out the theme of salvation of the underclass in Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row.In the Art of Loving, Fromm treats love as the root of human existence and classifies love into five objects: motherly love, erotic love, brotherly love, self love and the love of God. Fromm points out that love is a solution to living predicament and to social problems. Starting from this point, this paper will analyze self salvation, interpersonal salvation and institutional salvation of underclass from self love, brotherly love and the God of love, with the thread of the sense of inferiority, homelessness and loneliness of underclass.This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter one analyzes the self salvation. Based on the analysis of suicide phenomenon in Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, this chapter thinks that Steinbeck stresses the importance for the underclass to overcome the sense of inferiority, and points out that only by relying on self love, can underclass individuals eliminate loneliness and the sense of inferiority, and then achieve the salvation of themselves. Chapter two discusses the interpersonal salvation. Through the analysis of the process of paisanos group‘s formation in Tortilla Flat and the brotherly union in the community in Cannery Row, this chapter holds that these two works reflect the importance of brotherly love for the underclass to eliminate helplessness and obtain a sense of belongingness. Chapter three analyzes the institutional salvation. It stresses the function of rational faith and the irrational faith respectively and the importance of setting up class belief and then draws the conclusion that the rational faith is the root of the salvation of the underclass for it helps underclass people to transcend irrational faith to class belief.From the above analysis, this thesis concludes that Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row show the possibility of the salvation of the underclass. This salvation is related to the social background. Steinbeck thinks that the underclass are not strong enough to fight against the bourgeoisie, but they can achieve salvation by way of self salvation, interpersonal salvation and institutional salvation with the basis of recognizing their class status, forming a joint force, and gaining their own class interests. From that point, these two novels do not show Steinbeck‘s flinch on bourgeoisie criticism but reflect Steinbeck‘s concern on how the underclass people extricate from their plight by themselves.