The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

First published: 1961

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of plot: 1960

Locale: New Baytown, Long Island

Principal characters

• Ethan Allen Hawley, a storekeeper
• Mary Hawley, his wife
• Joe Morphy, a bank teller
• Marullo, a store owner and Ethan’s boss
• Margie Young-Hunt, a divorced woman
• Mr. Baker, the town banker
• Danny Taylor, the town drunk

The Story:

Ethan Allen Hawley awakens on a Good Friday morning in April, 1960, and greets his wife, Mary, in his usual manner by making funny faces at her. Mary is amused but a bit unnerved; she disapproves of his constant teasing and flippancy, especially on “serious” holidays. At breakfast she asks him if he is going to close the store early for Good Friday. Ethan works as a grocery clerk in Marullo’s store, a position he resents when he remembers that his Puritan forebears were once influential in the village. His grandfather, in fact, owned a ship, which was mysteriously burned, and his father failed in business.

On his way to work, Ethan chats with Joe Morphy, the teller at Mr. Baker’s bank. “The Morph,” as he is called, is the village “newspaper” and knows the local gossip and everyone in town. This morning, he tells Ethan, purely as small talk between friends, his “philosophy” on how to rob a bank. At the store, Ethan plunges into his daily routine, beginning with his ritual of addressing the shelves of canned goods. It is a ritual he performs half in celebration of life, half in self-deprecation, sensing how far he, a Harvard graduate and veteran of World War II, fell. As he is sweeping, Ethan is greeted by Mr. Baker, president of the bank. A leading citizen of New Baytown and respectable, moneyed, and secure, Mr. Baker reminds Ethan of the money Mary inherited and urges him to invest it wisely. He assures Ethan that in spite of the Hawleys’ setback, he wants to see Ethan and his family succeed for the sake of the Hawley “tradition.”

Later that day Margie Young-Hunt enters the store. An attractive divorcé, flirtatious and sexually predatory, she has on occasion slept with Joe and shared her evenings with other men such as Biggers, the traveling salesman. She is attracted to Ethan. On this morning, she announces to him that she is going to read her cards for Mary that night, and she predicts good fortune for Ethan.

After Margie leaves, Marullo comes in. Half bully, half father figure, Marullo offers Ethan, whom he calls Kid, advice on how to run the store better by thinking more of making money than of friends. At Marullo’s departure, Ethan is approached by an agent for a grocery distributor who offers Ethan a bribe to stock his product; Ethan refuses.

At home, Ethan learns that his children are entering the I Love America essay contest. Disappointed at his son’s attempt to find an easy way to write the essay, Ethan tells him to read the books in the attic, books of the great American orators and statesmen. That night, before going to bed, Ethan walks to his place by the water, where he meditates on the day’s events and gives Danny Taylor, his boyhood friend and now the town drunk, a dollar so that Danny can buy a “skull buster” and sink into drunken oblivion.

On Saturday, Margie holds a card reading and predicts that Ethan’s fortunes will turn. Ethan himself is cynical, but he begins to feel the pressure of Margie’s prediction, Mr. Baker’s advice, Marullo’s admonitions, and Joe’s playful remarks on how to rob a bank. He begins to formulate his own plan for making money. His meditations that night are filled with images of Danny, whose personal failure is to be connected with Ethan’s success.

Easter Sunday sees the Hawleys invited to tea at the Bakers’. Ethan is suspicious and resentful, convinced that Baker will try somehow to further his own ends under the pretext of helping Ethan, The conversation between them that afternoon centers on Baker’s conviction that New Baytown is the perfect place for an airport and that with the right money buying the right land fortunes will be made. That night Ethan goes to Danny’s shack by the edge of the meadow. Danny is drunk, as usual, and Ethan learns that Baker gave Danny the bottle and tried to get him to sign over the property, but Danny refused. Ethan pleads with Danny never to sell the land, telling him that his meadow is coveted by Baker and others for an airport. Danny accepts Ethan’s offer of a thousand dollars for a “cure,” though Danny cynically—and rightly—accuses Ethan of harboring his own designs on Taylor Meadow.

The next day, when Ethan and Joe talk about Marullo, Joe suggests that the old man probably came to America illegally after the immigration laws changed. Back at the store, Ethan begins to plot the bank robbery. After learning that Danny made him a beneficiary in his will, Ethan at first feels bad, realizing that he tricked Danny into trusting him. Later, when Marullo offers Ethan fatherly advice, Ethan calls the Department of Immigration and turns him in.

Now deeply involved in treachery, Ethan once again contemplates his actions, judging personal success as a form of immorality. Baker tells him of a scandal that is about to break—the town leaders are involved in bribery and payola. Meanwhile, Marullo ostensibly leaves the country and, as a father would do, leaves Ethan the store. Danny is found dead, which puts Ethan in possession of Taylor Meadow and gives him an advantage over Mr. Baker, who now has to deal with Ethan in his airport plans.

Ethan’s own scheme to rob the bank is almost concluded, but he is frustrated at the last minute by the arrival of the Immigration official inquiring about Marullo. Ethan drops the plan. On returning home he learns that his son won honorable mention in the national essay contest but that he cheated, plagiarizing whole passages from the great orators to whose works Ethan directed him.

Ethan now has Taylor Meadow, Marullo’s store, and, given the town scandal, a favored position to become town mayor. His personal life, however, is in ruin: His son is a cheat, he himself is as dishonest as those earlier “pirates” who brought down his family, and he becomes a stranger even to his wife.

In a final confrontation with Baker, Ethan demands a controlling interest in the corporation formed to build the airport in exchange for his turning over Taylor Meadow. Later, sensing Ethan’s essential loneliness, Margie tries to seduce him, but Ethan declines. That night, he goes back to his private place by the sea and attempts to kill himself. At the last minute, however, he resists, preferring instead to go on, hoping for self-renewal.

Bibliography

Fontenrose, Joseph. John Steinbeck: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963. A very readable study that discusses Steinbeck’s use of myths and legendary material as structural elements in his plots. An influential work.

French, Warren. John Steinbeck. Boston: Twayne, 1961. One of the best general treatments of Steinbeck’s work, and an example of the approach called New Criticism, which was prevalent in the 1960’s. Each major work is closely analyzed, with discussions centered on the meaning of the text.

George, Stephen K., and Barbara A. Heavilin, eds. John Steinbeck and His Contemporaries. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2007. A collection of papers from a 2006 conference about Steinbeck and the writers who influenced or informed his work. Some of the essays discuss his European forebears, particularly Henry Fielding and Sir Thomas Malory, and his American forebears, such as Walt Whitman and Sarah Orne Jewett, while other essays compare his work to Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and other twentieth century American writers

Heavilin, Barbara A., ed.“The Winter of Our Discontent.” Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. A collection of critical essays about the novel, including discussions of the psychological journey of Ethan Allen Hawley, Ethan as Lancelot, the depiction of the 1950’s quiz show scandals, and the novel’s reception in Thailand.

Hughes, R. S. Beyond “The Red Pony”: A Reader’s Companion to Steinbeck’s Complete Short Stories. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1987. Deals exclusively with Steinbeck’s more than fifty works of short fiction. Provides particularly interesting discussions of Steinbeck’s uncollected works, stories he published in magazines during the 1940’s and the 1950’s. Discusses the source of The Winter of Our Discontent.

Levant, Howard. The Novels of John Steinbeck: A Critical Study. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1974. A constructionist approach, this study discusses the structural patterns of the novels. Suggests that Steinbeck’s intentions, his “blueprints,” were often at odds with the finished products and that his works reveal his inability to effectively fuse material with structure and theme with pattern. Interesting discussion of the similarities between Steinbeck’s first novel, Cup of Gold (1929), and his last, The Winter of Our Discontent.

Meyer, Michael J., ed. The Betrayal of Brotherhood in the Work of John Steinbeck. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. Describes how Steinbeck adapted the biblical story of Cain and Abel in many of his works. Includes two essays focusing on The Winter of Our Discontent.

Simmonds, Roy S. A Biographical and Critical Introduction of John Steinbeck. Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 2000. Charts Steinbeck’s evolution as a writer from 1929 through 1968, discussing the themes of his works and the concepts and philosophies that influenced his depictions of human nature and the psyche. Interweaves details about his writings with accounts of his personal life.