California Landscape Writing In John Steinbeck’s Novels(1930s)

John Steinbeck(1902-1968)is the sixth writer in American history to win the Nobel Prize for Literature after Ernest Hemingway.He devoted his life to the experimental exploration of“content and form” in literature,attempting to use various artistic techniques in his novels to rebuild the ideal “Garden of Eden” for Americans whose dreams were shattered during the economic crisis of the 1930 s.The California landscapes in his works in the 1930 s contain rich natural beauty and cultural,historical,and practical significance,reflecting the spiritual thinking of people of this era.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the main body of the paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter categorizes the California landscape writing involved in the novel.Firstly,Steinbeck starts with the true geographical features of his hometown and depicts the valley scenery where human and natural life are interconnected and blended with mysterious will;it also revolves around the flowing rivers,flowing rivers are also described as symbols of eternal freedom in human memory.Scenery has become an important medium for individuals to explore nature and the truth of their own lives,and an ideal home for modern people to temporarily rest their spirits.Secondly,the “garden” with natural attributes is a place where women design and create themselves.As an emotional image,it is an emotional bond between women in a closed family space and the external nature,becoming a symbol of women’s identity.Finally,Steinbeck uses imaginative methods to construct a Utopian landscape of disillusionment in the memory of the characters,revealing the real survival dilemma of the bottom workers.The second chapter mainly summarizes the artistic techniques of California landscape writing in the novel.Steinbeck was influenced by film art and used the language of film art to highlight the picturesque sense of scenery.In order to better integrate with the narrative function of the novel,he uses rich color language to hint at the identity and character of the characters,endowing them with reasonable possibilities for behavior,and thus promoting the narrative of the novel;By adjusting the intensity of light,he exhibits the texture and movement of natural landscapes in different states through instantaneous flow,and regards light as a hidden narrative power to match the instantaneous psychological rhythm of characters,presenting readers with visual and psychological dual narrative images;He uses an ordered language of scenery to reveal the causes,extent,and results of arid landscapes,and reveals the fundamental causes of the fate of character groups through the “hidden process that violates justice”.Sound has also become an important means of presenting landscape images.The natural soundscape infects the inner hearts of the characters in the landscape space and carries Steinbeck’s ecological discourse expression on the common connection between human beings and nature;The novel combines the“repetition” technique in music with thematic imagery,deepening the narrative theme of seeking eternal “Garden of Eden” in traditional Western literature.Chapter Three traces the reasons for Steinbeck’s California landscape writing.California’s life occupies nearly one-third of Steinbeck’s life,and this is a crucial stage in the formation of his values.Steinbeck’s early childhood experiences of close contact with nature,the people he met while growing up,and the psychological experiences he intentionally participated in labor activities to accumulate materials for writing were unconsciously condensed into the “California complex”,which became the internal driving force and source of his creation.The author rejected the contemporary popular “anthropocentrism” view of nature and constantly explored and studied nature,forming a “holistic” ecological view in which the whole and the part are interdependent and inseparable.Advanced concepts are prominently reflected in landscape descriptions,drawing a unique picture of the integration of all things,and achieving advanced expression of ecological concepts.Chapter Four explores the significance of Steinbeck’s California landscape writing.The beautiful natural scenery in the novel,as an aesthetic object,blends with the human being as the aesthetic subject emotionally,achieving a balanced harmony and unity,bringing people a sense of peaceful and harmonious aesthetic pleasure.At the level of human landscape,Steinbeck presented a true and authoritative modern western landscape through inheritance and transformation.Landscape is the carrier of personal and historical memories.The excavation and presentation of two types of landscapes is an artistic means for writers to identify themselves and participate in historical narratives to construct national identities.It has important practical significance for the development of individual selves and nations.The landscape in Steinbeck’s novels is not only a space for his personal emotional expression,artistic means of practice,and ideal sustenance,but also a kind of identity memory that includes everything related to the existence of human beings in geographical space and their way of existence.It connects the emotions of history and the present,conceals the value expression of the writer’s hope for the eternal survival of mankind in the future,and shines with human’s unremitting poetic pursuit of an ideal natural homeland amid power erosion and oppression,It has unique value and significance.