An Artist of Range and Breadth: Commemorating Steinbeck

Surveying Steinbeck's range and breadth, this article focuses to a large extent on his varied styles, subject matter, and the several roles of women in his works. On the one hand, he produced Of Mice and Men, a brief but mythic piece that for all its universality may be read and enjoyed by high school students and is a staple of their reading lists, while speaking as well to readers of all ages. Alternatively, after the end of World War II the King of Norway awarded him the King Haakon VII Freedom Cross for writing a book that inspired resistance to the murderous Nazi menace. And his portrayal of women runs the gamut from young children such as Ruthie in The Grapes of Wrath to Gramma in the same novel.