Page and Screen: John Steinbeck

Much of John Steinbeck’s literary presence today comes from his most famous works, The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. But his shorter novels and novellas were so popular and poignant that many were turned into highly acclaimed films. In this course, we will read and then view four of his works from the 1930s and 40s: The Red Pony, Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men, and The Pearl. The goal will be to think through the early twentieth-century America presented by Steinbeck and the filmmakers and compare it with our contemporary experiences at the beginning of the twenty-first century.