Date of Creation
4-23-2025
Document Type
Departmental Honors Thesis
Department
English
First Advisor
Patrick Whitmarsh
Abstract
This thesis examines the agricultural criticisms of John Steinbeck in conversation with those of Barbara Kingsolver. It argues that Kingsolver answers Steinbeck’s agricultural criticisms in her own works with a vision of an improved food system that benefits farmers, consumers, and the environment. The first chapter looks at the 1939 classic The Grapes of Wrath, arguing that Steinbeck levels four main criticisms against industrial agriculture, all of which point towards a social movement aimed at protesting against the exploitation of the natural world. The second chapter opens with a dialogue between Steinbeck (informed by The Grapes of Wrath and Travels with Charley (1962)) and Rachel Carson (informed by Silent Spring (1962)) before providing a brief history of agriculture and environmentalism during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. It explores the simultaneous and counterintuitive trends of the environmental movement and the Great Acceleration in order to situate historically the different time periods of Steinbeck and Kingsolver. The third chapter elucidates the ways in which Kingsolver answers each of Steinbeck’s main agricultural criticisms. It looks at the novel Prodigal Summer (2000) and the non-fiction Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2007), both of which provide Kingsolver the opportunity to assert her ecological morality as it pertains to farming. Throughout all three chapters, the thesis considers the literary traditions of both authors and discusses how those traditions influence their respective environmental ideas. The connections between the agricultural criticisms of the two authors are particularly important in light of the longer and ongoing tradition of environmentally focused writing that takes agriculture as its primary concern. In order to properly interpret contemporary works that revisit the history of industrial-scale farming, its economic repercussions for local farming communities, and the long environmental crisis that has ensued in its wake, it is paramount to understand the dialogue created by Steinbeck’s agricultural criticisms and Kingsolver’s solutions to those criticisms.
Recommended Citation
Fletcher, Will, "Cultivating a New Agricultural Ethos: An Environmentalist Reading of John Steinbeck and Barbara Kingsolver" (2025). English Honors Theses. 19.
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/engl_honor/19