Flight

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, to John Ernst Steinbeck and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck. His father, among other things, was the treasurer for Monterey County, where he spent much of his life. His mother was a former schoolteacher who loved reading and writing as much as he did. Steinbeck grew up with his three sisters—Beth, Ester, and Mary.

Steinbeck’s ties to Monterey County heavily influenced his writing and served as the setting for some of his most famous works, including Tortilla Flat (1935), Cannery Row (1945), and the short story “Flight” (1938). His father struggled to find his calling in life, moving from one job to another while his mother, a strong, independent woman, stayed home with the children. This dynamic between his uncertain father and strong mother can be seen in “Flight,” as the women are portrayed as strong and wise while the men make foolish mistakes.

Steinbeck decided that he wanted to be a writer when he was young—as early as age 14—but writing is not the only type of work he pursued. He also spent many of his summers working on ranches near his home in Monterey County. While working on these ranches, he got to see firsthand how the migrant workers were treated. These experiences likely influenced the focus on agriculture and the migrant farm workers that feature in many of his works, such as Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939).

After graduating high school, Steinbeck enrolled at Stanford University in 1919, a decision mostly motivated by the desire to appease his parents. He studied at Stanford on and off for several years, only taking the courses in writing, literature, and science that specifically interested him. In 1925, Steinbeck finally dropped out of Stanford for good. After almost six years, Steinbeck left, having studied little more than writing craft. It was a quiet act of defiance against the parents who wanted him to earn a degree.

The same quiet defiance can be found throughout Steinbeck’s body of work in the way he portrays working-class protagonists as honorable and exposes the cruelty of the upper classes. While he may not have considered his parents to be antagonists like Curley from Of Mice and Men or the nameless avenger in “Flight,” they inspired the same defiance that became a staple in his work.

In the late 1920s, only a couple of years after Steinbeck dropped out of Stanford, he met Carol Henning—another strong, independent woman to match Steinbeck’s mother and sisters. A few years later, in 1930, the couple got married. They moved into the Steinbeck summer home, and while Carol worked to support the two of them, Steinbeck wrote. Throughout their marriage, Carol typed her husband’s manuscripts, edited his work, and even came up with the title of The Grapes of Wrath. Encouraged and inspired by Carol, the Great Depression saw Steinbeck writing many of his most famous works, including Tortilla Flat (1935), Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and The Long Valley (1938), which includes the short story, “Flight.”