CHAPTER
IV
ANALYSIS
In
this chapter, the writer analyzes certain aspects such as characters, setting,
plot, and themes which be elaborated as the following. These are very important
parts in gaining information that the writer needs related to the very important
in gaining information and connects them to the facts of social conditions of
American at that time and biography of the author, John Steinbeck.
4.1.
Intrinsic
elements
In
this subchapter, the writer elaborates the intrinsic elements of the novel Tortilla
Flat by John Steinbeck such as characters, setting, plot, and theme.
A. Characters
A reader can get the point of the story or
understand the line of the story by following the main characters attitude,
utterance, and action. In the analysis of characters, the writer focuses only
the characters that the writer considers giving certain information which are
linked to the analysis. They are six characters that the writer analyzes:
1.
Danny
Danny is a person who can make tough decisions when
a task should be given to someone in a group. Danny is like a King for Knights
in Steinbeck model Paisanos. When Danny returned from the First World War,
Danny discovered the fact that his grandfather died and left two houses for
him. Although all the characters in this group formed share everything they
have, the fact is that Danny has homes and it elevates him to a higher position
than his friends. His character is formed in the novel mentioned below
"Race
antipathy overcame Danny's good sense. He menaced the fishermen. "Sicilian
bastards," he called them, and "Scum from the Prison Island,"
and "Dogs of dogs of dogs." He cried, "Chinga Tu Madre,
Piojo." He thumbed his nose and made obscene gestures below his waist. The
fishermen only grinned and shifted their oars and said, "Hello, Danny.
When'd you get home? Come around tonight. We got new wine." (2000:7)
Danny
was outraged. He screamed, "Pon un condoa la cabeza." They called,
"Good-by, Danny. See you tonight." And they climbed into their little
boats and rowed out to the lampara launches and started their engines and
chugged away." (2000:7)
The above piece of text shows how the character of
the Danny depicted in this novel is cursing by exerting annoyance after being
released from prison. The other character shown by Danny depicted in this novel
is a brutal Danny behavior, as illustrated in the following piece of text:
"Danny was
insulted. He walked back up Alvarado Street, breaking windows as he went, and
in the second block, a policeman took him in hand. (2000:7)
Danny
sank back, exhausted wide emotion. "I do not know. I forgot I owned
them." (2000:11)
Furthermore, the attitude of Danny that
contradicts the attitude previously shown is basically a good child is also
described in the following description:
“Danny's great respect
for the law caused him to go quietly. If he had not just been discharged from
the army after the victory over Germany, he would have been sentenced to six
months. As It was, the judge gave him only thirty days. (2000:7-8)
In
this novel, it is depicted that some of the characters that Danny has, a
drunkard, emotional, and Danny are actually pretty good kids.
2. Pilon
Pilon is one of Diana's best friends who
has the ability as a thinker, and in this novel, the Pilon in his group is the
thinker or the originator of the idea. Any problem that arises in the group
then Pilon is the one who will provide the solution. In addition, Pilon is
spiritual but lives his life by being a drunkard. Although Pilon is a drunkard,
but always intends to not make mistakes. In this novel the character of the Pilon
is described in the following description:
"Pilon,"
he said sadly, "I wish you owned it and I could come to live with
you." (2000:13)
The quote above shows the character of a
Pilon who is a thinker. As illustrated how the Pilon thinks quickly when he
sees Mrs. Morales's cousin neighbors Danny's house.
"The Weeds?"
Pilon cried in horror. "Not those weeds" He explained his theory of
Mrs. Morales' chickens. (2000:13)
Pilon
knows very well and understands how to take advantage of everything in any
situation. His agility was captured by Danny by letting the pilon stay at his
home. But unlike the lively pilon in thinking, Danny invitation in different
perceptions, as shown in the quotation below:
“Pilon,
remembering his brandy, thought this unfair. "I am getting in debt to
him," he thought bitterly. "My freedom will be cut off. Soon I shall
be a slave because of this Jew's house." But he did go out to look for
some dinner.” (2000:13)
The thought of a Pilon, if he has lost his freedom
when in asking for stay with Danny because Pilon thinks will tone of debt that
he must pay. Some of the events that describe how the character of Pilon who
often change and deftly in thinking as described in the following description:
“One
night he had a dollar, acquired in a manner so astounding that he tried to
forget it immediately for fear the memory might make him mad. A man in front of
the San Carlos hotel had put the dollar in his hand, saying, "Run down and
get four bottles of ginger-ale. The hotel is out." Such things were almost
miracles, Pilon thought. One should take them on faith, not worry and question
them. He took the dollar up the road to give to Danny, but on the way, he
bought a gallon of wine, and with the wine, he lured two plump girls into his
house.” (2000:16)
In the above paragraph explains, the
agility of Pilon in thinking, who initially intend to pay rent to Danny turned
away prefer to buy a bottle of wine.
“But on the way, he
bought two gallons of wine. "It is better so," he thought. "If I
give him hard money, it does not express how warmly I feel toward my friend.
But a present, now. And I will tell him the two gallons cost five
dollars." This was silly, and Pilon knew it, but he indulged himself. No
one in Monterey better knew the price of wine than Danny.” (2000:17)
Pilon pounced.
"See, Pablo, how would you like to rent part of my house? There would
never be the cold ground for you anymore. Never the hard sand under the wharf
with crabs getting in your shoes. How would you like to live here with
me?" (2000:20)
Pilon sighed with
relief. He had not realized how the debt to Danny rode on his shoulders. The
fact that he was fairly sure Pablo would never pay any rent did not mitigate his
triumph. If Danny should ever ask for money, Pilon could say, "I will pay
when Pablo pays." (2000:20)
The agility of Pilon thinking is again
depicted in the above piece of text, where he thinks that if he invites his
friend Danny to drink a bottle of wine it will make Danny happy.
3. Pablo
Pablo is a good friend and obedient worship. Pablo
has a broad and wise insight into responding to something by understanding his
situation so that he is always seen doing good, even though Pablo does not
understand it. This is illustrated in the text snippet below:
"So I was,
Pilon," Pablo said jocularly. "But I was not well received. The judge
said the sentence did me no good, and the police said I ate more than the
allowance for three men. And so," he finished proudly, "I am on
parole." (2000:19)
The
above paragraph explains the character of Pablo who always responds to
something well. When Pablo is in prison, he proudly reveals his forgiveness.
Furthermore, Pablo who has a strong insight is reflected from the following
description:
"Pablo," he
said, "dost thou never get tired of sleeping in ditches, wet and homeless,
friendless and alone?". Ah, Pablo, this is indeed living." (2000:20)
"If all the dew
were diamonds," Pablo said, "we would be very rich. We would be drunk
all our lives." (2000:21)
The phrase above shows if Pablo has
thought and fantasies that are good enough for his life.
4. Jesus
Maria
Jesus Maria Corcoran is one of the
villains in the Tortilla Flat, people know him by the call of Jesus Mary. Jesus
Maria has a gentle heart always wants to help humanity in distress. Jesus Maria
was able to find the condition of his goodness can be used even though
sometimes less fortunate.
“Jesus
Maria was a humanitarian, and kindness was always in him. He cleared his throat
and spat. "Give me a drink," he said. "My throat is dry. I will
tell you how it was." He drank dreamily, like a man who has so much wine
that he can take his time in drinking it, can even spill a little without
remorse. "I was sleeping on the beach two nights ago," he said.
"Out on the beach near Seaside. In the night the little waves washed a
rowboat to the shore. Oh, a nice little rowboat and the oars were there. I got
in and rowed it down to Monterey. It was easily worth twenty dollars, but a
trade was slow, and I only got seven." (2000:26)
The phrase above shows the character of Jesus Maria
who has a gentle heart, although Jesus Maria happy to get drunk but when drunk
he was still able to show his soft feel with a sense of humanity.
“Pablo
and Pilon rushed to him. "Our friend! He is hurt. He has fallen off a
cliff. He has been run over by a train!" There was not the slightest tone
of satire, but Jesus Maria knew it for the most deadly kind of satire. He
glared at them out of the eye which still had some volition hi such matters.”
(2000:34)
The humanity of Jesus Maria is again
shown in the above piece of text when Pilon and Pablo deliberately make fun of
the opponent Jesus Maria when fighting earlier.
5. The
Pirate
Having a large body, black, and body growth are not
in line with his thoughts. The pirate is a plain and trusting person to others,
so sometimes his friends use it. But because of his innocence and kindness, the
pirate manages to make his companions sympathize with him. The pirate figure is
always accompanied by five dogs who always go hand in hand with the pirate
while protecting and helping the pirate if there is a danger that threatens it.
A great many
people saw the Pirate every day, and some laughed at him, and some pitied him,
but no one knew him very well, and no one interfered with him. He was a huge,
broad man, with a tremendous black and bushy beard. He wore jeans and a blue
shirt, and he had no hat. (2000:44)
The paragraph snippet above shows the appearance of
the pirate. Where he was known given the nickname of the pirate because of his
beard, which is shown in the sentence. They called him The Pirate because of
his beard.
The plain and trusting figure of the others, as well
as the gentleness of the pirate, is shown in the following paragraph:
“The
Pirate lived in a deserted chicken house in the yard of a deserted house on
Tortilla Flat. He would have thought it presumptuous to live in the house
itself./The dogs lived around and on top of him, and the Pirate liked this, for
his dogs kept him warm on the coldest nights. If his feet were cold, he had
only to put them on the warm belly of Senor Alec Thompson. The chicken house
was so low that the Pirate had to crawl in on his hands and knees.” (2000:44)
Plain figure that makes him think inappropriate
to stay in a house. Furthermore, the nature of compassion possessed by the
pirate is shown by:
“When
the Pirate had visited each back door and had his arms full of parcels, he
walked back up the hill to Munroe Street and entered a vacant lot, and the dogs
excitedly swarmed about him. Then he opened the parcels and fed the dogs. For
himself, he took bread or a piece of meat out of each package, but he did not
pick the best for himself. The dogs sat down about him, licking their lips
nervously, and shifting their feet while they waited for food. They never
fought over it, and that was a surprising thing. The Pirate's dogs never fought
each other, but they fought everything else that wandered the streets of
Monterey on four legs. It was a fine thing to see the pack of five, hunting
fox-terriers and Pomeranians like rabbits.” (2000:45)
Despite the dreaded pirate appearance by the people
of the city, yet he has a tender heart. Where he always takes care of his pet.
“The
Pirate was following his words with breathless astonishment, and his brain
tried to realize these new things he was hearing. It did not occur to him to
doubt them since Pilon was saying them. "I have all these Mends?" he
said in wonder. "And I did not know it. And I am a worry to those Mends. I
did not know, Pilon. I would not have worried them if I had known." He
swallowed to clear his throat of emotion. "You see, Pilon, the dogs like
it here. And I like it because of them. 1 did not think I was a worry to my
friends/' Tears came into the Pirate's eyes.” (2000:49)
The pirate's kindness is shown with
loyalty, not wanting to make his friends worry, he listens and believes in the
words of Pilon and Pablo. Without finding out the truth.
6. Joe
Portugis
Big Joe Portagee - Big, not nimble, and
pretty weak, Big Joe is an anti-hero guy from Tortilla Flat but big joe has
managed to get readers to sympathize with his character. Big Joe in the role of
his character in the demand to do good things though sometimes less fortunate.
“Portagee
would have spent a miserable time in the army. Tlie fact that he was Big Joe
Portagee, with a decent training in the Monterey jail, not only saved him the
misery of patriotism thwarted, but solidified his conviction that as a man's
days are rightly devoted half to sleeping and half to waking, so a man's years
are rightly spent half in jail and half out. For the duration of the war, Joe
Portage spent considerably more time in jail than out. (2000:58)
Joe
Portage is the person who spends more time in prison. He was punished for not
doing anything and being drunk while on duty.
Ordinarily, he
spent half his time in jail; of two years In the army, he spent eighteen months
in jail. And he was far from satisfied with prison life in the army. In the
Monterey jail, he was accustomed to easing and companionship. In the army, he
found only work. In Monterey, only one charge was ever brought against him:
Drunk and Disorderly Conduct. The charges in the army bewildered him so
completely that the effect on his mind was probably permanent. (2000:58)
At that time his friends were repatriated to his
hometown, while big joe still had to spend his detention for six months. Big
Joe is known to be a rebellious character too, described as follows:
“When the war was over,
and all the troops were disbanded, Big Joe still had six months' sentence to
serve. 'The charge had been: "Being drunk on duty. Striking a sergeant
with a kerosene can. Denying his identity (he couldn't remember it, so he
denied everything). Stealing two gallons of cooked beans, and going A.W.O.L. on
the Major's horse." (2000:58)
His disobedience to the rules made him
increasingly punished. Luckily, because when the offense, the war situation has
ended, so only get prison sentence only. These five figures have the greatest
role in the novel tortilla flat. The role of the four characters makes the main
role of Danny successful grab the reader's sympathy and make flat tortilla story
becomes more interesting.
B. Plot
The plot is a series of events in the story arranged
as a sequence of sections in the whole fiction. Thus, the plot is a combination
of elements that build the story so that the main framework of the story.
Tortilla plate is a novel that describes events that
generally occur. Where a bunch of friends who tie up the promise above the
beautiful Monterey. This group of companions is called paisanos. Where these
six friends work as drinkers, thieves, criminals, and homeless. But behind the
profession that is often done to six friends is basically have a good heart, it
just takes less wine to make friendship more closely because they, in general,
have the same hobby that is drunk.
Of the six paisanos are Danny, Pilon, Pablo, Jesus
Maria, and Big Joe Portagee. These six friends had initially followed the
battle, but for some reason, they had finally left the battle arena. After
returning from the next battle arena the journey to the six friends began one
of which was the most influential of the Danny who had found his grandfather
had died and left his inheritance to him.
1.
Exposition
Danny's back after the War—World War I, that is—and
finds that he has inherited two houses from his dead grandpa. He's not too
excited by this prospect, but he has no choice but to become a landowner, a
respectable person in Tortilla Flat.
This sets the stage for the novel. It's Danny's
change in condition from an irresponsible, footloose, and fancy-free guy to the
homeowner with responsibilities and headaches that make him form his gang of
friends.
"When Danny
came home from the army he learned that he was an heir and an owner of the
property. The Viejo, that is the grandfather, had died to leave Danny the two
small houses on Tortilla Flat"(2000:7)
The opening in this chapter shows the
background of someone who feels burdened with inheritance. While his
grandfather was alive, he was unhappy with the luxuries and there were
conflicts that were felt within him, leaving home and finally meeting some of
his next friends.
2.
Complication (rising Action)
Separately friends Pilon, Pablo, Jesus
Maria, Pirate, and Big Joe start living in Danny's house and unknowingly, they
make a mess and ignore the condition of Danny's house so that on a night they
accidentally caused Danny's house to burn out. Then after Danny's house was
burned down, Danny's relationship and his friends grew closer to a family. They
work together to help each other what they can do for them one another.
sometimes they quarrel over each other and then makeup.
3.
Crisis (climax)
Danny began to feel trapped because his
days were getting more routine, and nothing seemed to make him happy. The
irresponsible life lost when he inherited the houses seems to be interesting
again. Having together with his friends tied up family relationships, Danny's
days began to get bored and it made him unhappy. His current life is felt to be
insignificant and irresponsible to what has been passed on to him. The
inheritance he got was no longer attractive. He back into the forest, and will
not return to his home when he will rob when his friends sleep or not at home.
Danny's friends, Pilon, Pablo, Jesus Maria, Pirates, and Big Joe find it
difficult.
4.
Falling Action: Party Time
Danny's friends realized what had
happened to his best friend. Pilon, Pablo, Jesus Maria, Pirate, and Big Joe
plan to make a party, with the aim of which can entertain Danny. They had a
lively party, where everyone in Tortilla Flat was invited. They dance and drink
as well, even they provide a lot of drinks in the party
"On
every side Fate was against them. Tito Ralph came in with his new green
handkerchief sticking out of his breast pocket, but the hostility he aroused
made him back apologetically out of the room"(2000:151)
Danny's funeral, Danny's friends had no
clothes for a military funeral. They talked about their stories when Danny was
alive in Gulch. After Danny's death,
Pilon steals wine from Tonelli and Pablo sings the song "Tuli Pan". A
small fire was deliberately set at home, and Danny's friends only watched as a
sign of agreement, without rescuing his two friends the Pilon and Pablo, then
both left the fireplace
5.
Resolution
After Danny's death, his friends felt
that there was no reason to stay together, but they did not realize that they
could not be separated like the glue that attached them to each other. They're
sitting in the house remembering him and accidentally start a fire. They let it
burn, and once the house is gone, each man walks off in separate directions,
disbanding the brotherhood. The house, which was the symbol of their friendship
and the force that held them together. When it is gone, so is their friendship.
C. Setting
1.
Setting of Time
Well, for once, we've got the truth in advertising:
Tortilla Flat takes place in wait for it Tortilla Flat, a real neighborhood in
Monterey, California, and is all about its quirky inhabitants and their
adventures. It's a poor neighborhood, racially defined by the paisanos who live
there:
"Monterey
sits on the slope of a hill, with a blue bay below it and with a forest of tall
dark pine trees at its back. The lower parts of the town are inhabited by
Americans, Italians, catchers, and canners of fish. But on the hill where the
forest and the town intermingle, where the streets are innocent of asphalt and
the corners free of street lights, the old inhabitants of Monterey are
embattled as the Ancient Britons are embattled in Wales. These are the paisanos.
(Preface.3)"
So the city of Monterey is one thing, and Tortilla
Flat, a wild, frontier-like suburb, is another. When the narrator mentions the
"old inhabitants," he's referring to the paisanos, the descendants of
the Spaniards, Native Americans, and Mexicans who lived in the area long before
anyone else arrived.
The fact that this neighborhood lacks street-lights
and asphalt shows us that the city doesn't consider Tortilla Flat to be under
its jurisdiction. Either that or the people there aren't important enough to
get the city's attention.
By confining the story to this one area, Steinbeck
gives us the feeling of being immersed in the neighborhood, of really getting
to know a certain place at a certain time, with all of its peculiarities.
Now, the time period is also crucial here. This
isn't just Tortilla Flat; it's Tortilla Flat as it was in the years after World
War I. Danny and his pals are coming back from the army, and although they
weren't actually sent to Europe (they were stationed in Texas, Oregon, and,
well, jail), they have a hard to readjust to life back home. As soldiers seem
to find out after every war, it's really tough to return to normal life after
you've gone through the upheaval of army life.
For Danny, this is symbolized by the fact that his
grandfather dies on him and leaves him two houses, forcing him to become a
landowner even though he's not mature enough to handle that responsibility.
For Danny and his friends, there's also a Great
Depression to contend with. There are very little work and even less money, so
the friends are left to fend for themselves and try to make a life for
themselves. What kind of lives can they possibly make? Danny doesn't even make
it to the end of the novel. What about the other guys? What opportunities do they
have? What can they do with themselves? Where can they find some meaning in
their lives?
2.
Setting of Place
Within Tortilla Flat, there's one little
square of living space that gets the most attention from Steinbeck's pen. It's
Danny's house, where the gang crowds in to live together. Danny's house is the
scene of some spectacular fights and parties (sometimes simultaneously), and
it's also the headquarters for the gang's activities:
“The
main room was just as it had been when the Viejo had lived there. The red rose
calendar for 1906, the silk banner on the wall, with Fighting Bob Evans looking
between the superstructures of a battleship, the bunch of red paper roses
tacked up, the strings of dusty red peppers and garlic, the stove, the battered
rocking chairs. (2000:12)
The inside of Danny's house has
obviously not had much TLC in the past few decades. His grandfather couldn't
even be bothered to change the calendar, and the dustiness and junk from wars
long past show a sort of timelessness about the setting.
It's also a stifling environment: living
here, Danny will eventually start to feel just like those rocking chairs and
strings of peppers, both dusty and battered. The house, with its unchanging
nature, drags him down and makes him feel like he's collecting dust: they both
end up destroyed in the end.
D. Extrinsic elements
To understand the literary work, it is
not just enough to identify and to analyze the structures which build up the
story. The literary work is also influenced by many aspects, such as social,
history, culture, religion, morality, etc. The following extrinsic element
description:
1.
Great events
Pilon and Pablo enjoy two gallons of
wine. Monterey prepares for the night. Pablo enjoys dinner, firewood, and love
from Mrs. Torelli. Jesus Maria is beaten up by soldiers because he enjoys their
whiskey and their girlfriend Arabella. Pablo's candle, dedicated to St.
Francis, burns down the house, while Danny, who is with Mrs. Morales next door,
pays no attention.
2.
The social condition in Tortilla
John Steinbeck was born in the scenic and fertile
Salinas Valley of California. His father John was the county treasurer, and his
mother Olivia was a schoolteacher. Steinbeck decided that he wanted to become a
writer in 1916 at fourteen years of age, and in 1919 he enrolled at Stanford
University. At Stanford, the aspiring writer took only classes that he was
interested in, mostly from the English department, and as a result never
actually received a degree. Upon leaving the school in 1925, Steinbeck traveled
to New York to pursue life as a journalist and freelance writer. He enjoyed
brief success as a journalist but was soon fired from his job. In order to
support himself, the author took a job as an apprentice painter, caretaker,
surveyor, and fruit picker.
In 1929, Steinbeck released his first work of
fiction, a historical novel called Cup of Gold, which reinvented the legend of
Captain Henry Morgan, Jamaican Pirate, and purveyor of rum. Unfortunately, the
book did not meet with much initial success. In 1930, Steinbeck landed a job
back in California as the caretaker of a Lake Tahoe Estate. This provided him
with money to live on and plenty of time to work on his writing. During this
time, he also married the first of his three wives, Carol Henning. When his stint
as caretaker was up, the Steinbeck's moved back to the family home in Salinas
where John continued his writing and Carol took a job as a teacher in order to
support them.
Tortilla Flat was the book that achieved lasting
literary success and popularity for Steinbeck. It was released in 1935 and
received immediate attention from critics and book clubs. This allowed
Steinbeck to focus all of his energies on writing, and he enjoyed the most
productive period in his career. In 1936 he released In Dubious Battle and then
the works that are regarded as his masterpieces, Of Mice and Men in 1937 and
The Grapes of Within 1939. The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize and was
made into what is regarded as a classic movie in 1940. All of these books are
characterized by Steinbeck's extreme sentimentality towards the common man. He
glorifies paisanos, farmers, striking workers, and migrants alike. The books
are also enhanced by Steinbeck's beautiful but noninvasive detailing of the
California landscape. He makes the wildlife of Monterey and Carmel come alive
by describing it exactly as it is without glorifying to the point where it
could annoy readers. For this, many biographers have dubbed him the author of
the California Experience.
When World War II broke out, Steinbeck took a job as
a foreign correspondent and revived his journalism career. When the war was
over, he moved to New York again and continued to write voluminously, spreading
out from his focus on the California working man. He wrote East of Eden in
1952, and The Winter of Our Discontent in 1961, both of which are worthy
classics. Steinbeck's work was often criticized for its controversial handling
of the poor and the repressed. He experienced spells of unpopularity in
America, though his work stayed popular in Europe throughout his career. Of
Mice and Men, in particular, was often banned or burned in schools. In the
1960's, Steinbeck traveled through forty American states with his poodle and
wrote Travels with Charlie in Search of America. The result of the tour and the
book was the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962.
4.2.
The
rejection of materialism issues in the story.
Some of the social
conditions that led to many conflicts in this flat tortilla story came from the
main character named Danny, a vagrant who sometimes stole for his life and
several times in and out of prison. He later became the heir of two houses on
the Tortilla Plain from his deceased grandfather. Danny's social degrees
suddenly turned into a distinguished person, so he was being chased by village
women who also owned a house. In those days, in the Tortilla Plains, there were
a lot of poor, ragged, rough-faced peoples: sometimes in the gullies that were
just the sky.
Coming home from the
army, on the way, Danny meets Pilon - his old friend. Pilon who is also a bum
and then rents Danny's house with Pablo. Two of his grandfather's inheritance
houses were coincidentally adjacent. However, due to their carelessness, eventually
the house he rented burned. The generous Danny forgave them even to their
annoyance, allowing them to stay in their main house without any compensation
by inviting and other friends, Jesus Maria, the Pirate and his five dogs, and
Big Joe of Portugal.
That's where friendship
is established. They live in harmony and share. The story of their lives is
very absurd and far from modernity. In fact, perhaps this novel can be said to
reject modernity. Just imagine, only the ragged Pirate who daily works for wood
and searches for food scraps to restaurants. The rest of the food he got every
day was given to Danny and other friends sincerely.
While Danny and his
four friends do not work as permanently as humans in the real world. They
roughly live and work part-time only when they are pushed. After waking up,
they eat and then talk while drinking as much as drunk or traveling as they
pleased, then sleep again. And so on. A boring routine, which for today's
people can be said to be unemployed. The measure of the happiness of these six
friends is not money like a hedonist. The measure of their happiness lies in
gallons of intoxicating wine. Their purpose in life is to have fun without
thinking and considering good or bad.
In his home, the
nonconformist Danny is the leader of a group of adventurers who make friends.
That's where they can unify the differences. In the course of the story of the
character Danny and his friends, many emerging figures of women who may really
describe paisano women in the past. Uniquely, the female character generated by
Steinbeck is the wealthy women "who own the house", who can be said
to be adherents of materialism as well as a thirst for love. These women look
at a man from his wealth. Call it Cornelia Ruiz, a woman adored by Danny and her
friends, or Sweet - Dolores Engracia Ramirez - the spoiled woman who approached
Danny because Danny owns the house.
Other female figures of
the same kind are raised, for example, NY figure. Palacio, Emilio, Susie
Fransisco, NY. Murals, Gracie Montez, Tonia, NY. Platoon Ambassadors, to Old
Tia Ignacia who fell in love with Big Joe Portuguese. These characters appear
in several stories, some of which are narrated by male characters while at
Danny's house. Women's figures more than this male figure probably illustrate
that in those days - believed to be the same today - women are more than men.
Moreover, there is a female character named Teresia Cortez who has eight
children. She has no husband and lives with her old mother.
At one time Teresia
Cortez was bewildered by the lack of basic food of his family, the peas. Her
young children are starving. Especially the Teresia is pregnant with her ninth
child. Jesus Mary - the humble man - who knows this problem then tells his
friends. In order to help the family, they are willing to steal the side dishes
in the market and tons of red beans in a company. Indeed, they are very happy
to help others. Cooperation between them was very well established several
disagreements with the antagonist - Pilon. Call it, they also help a corporal
who does not care in the gutter with a baby. They allowed the corporal to stay
at Danny's house until an unexpected moment arrived, the baby corporal died.
The story ends with
Danny's death. The five friends felt sad and lonely. The ones who remembered in
their heads were the kind of things Danny had done. On the implicit side,
Steinbeck expressed his social criticism of a funeral service that had to wear
a nice suit in a suit. However, Danny's poor friends do not have suits. To
steal a coat was not time because of the sudden time so that the funeral
ceremony ala soldiers of this army they cannot attend as a whole.
The funeral ceremony is
exclusive and can only be attended by rich people only (have a suit). In fact,
the main focus of the ceremony is to put the corpse into a grave. In fact,
tradition says something else. Poor people who do not have suits or non-suits
are forbidden to attend the funeral. Finally, in tattered clothes, they watched
Danny's funeral sheltering from the towering bushes.
The exceptional novel
provides many lessons, as well as this experience, of course, will be more
interesting if dive deeper. When will we again read the weighted literary work
that provides many reflections as well as advice about the nature of human beings
in the face of his fate?
WANIANDI
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