l’influenza del parlare popolare – John Ernst Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) described the tragedies of the poor with scientific naturalism. He wrote about  the migrants (immigrati) and Mexican workers, the illiterate (analfabeti) and the oppressed. His dialogues reflect the speech patterns (modelli di discorso) of the rural labourers while his prose is often lyrical and shows the influence of folk tales (racconti popolari) in its use of repetition and rhythm (ritmo) revealing the nostalgia for a primitive and simple life. Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, of German and Irish ancestry (origini). His mother, Olive (Hamilton) Steinbeck, a school teacher, promoted (supportò) Steinbeck’s love of reading and the written word. During summers he worked as a hired hand (bracciante) on ranches, nourishing (arricchendo) his impression of the Californiacountryside and its people. After graduating from SalinasHigh School in 1919, Steinbeck attended StanfordUniversity for two years. In 1925 he left university  to pursue (perseguire) his writing career in New York. During World War II, Steinbeck was a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune. Some of his dispatches (dispacci) were later collected (collezionati) and made into Once There Was a War. John Steinbeck was awarded (fu premiato) the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.  He was a private person who avoided (evitò) publicity.