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Matthew Sinrod Dr. Doyle Eng 102 5/5/98 Themes in "The " John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California February 27th 1902. He was the third of four children and the only son of John Ernst Steinbeck II, manager of a flour mill, and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, a form ....

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.... is the suffering of humans. As F.W. Watt says, (The primary impact of The ...is not to make us act, but to make us understand and share a human experience of suffering and resistance.) Steinbeck shows us that his characters, as well as all people must endure suffering as human beings. Humans suffer due to many factors. Religious suffering is one factor which is self imposed. (When we first see Casy he is explaining to Tom Joad how he left preaching, not merely because of the lusts that plagued him, but because religious faith as he knew it seemed to set up codes of behavior which denied human nature its proper and full expression) Religious suffering ....