The Literature and Land of John Steinbeck P-Week spent Thursday in Salinas, California, the town in which John Steinbeck was born and raised.
Prior to the trip, we read Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row,” inspired by the community of Monterey, California, during the Great Depression of the 1930s. After several days spent in Monterey familiarizing ourselves with the ground that Steinbeck walked during the era of his life that inspired “Cannery Row,” we visited downtown Salinas to immerse ourselves in the town that holds Steinbeck’s childhood memories to better understand who he was as a person and writer.
The group began the morning with a tour of the National Steinbeck Center from tour guide Alexis Atayde, who walked us through a history of Steinbeck’s childhood and adulthood, including the immersive research and life experiences that shaped some of his most famous works, including “Cannery Row,” “East of Eden,” “Of Mice and Men,” and “The Grapes of Wrath.”
Students pictured themselves in the works of Steinbeck by interacting with displays that replicated the different worlds he wrote about. For example, students had the opportunity to sit on a replica of the bed in Edward Ricketts’ lab, the marine biologist who inspired the character Doc in “Cannery Row.”
Atayde noted that Steinbeck also used Ricketts as inspiration for his books “Sweet Thursday” and “Tortilla Flat.”
“[Tortilla Flat] was the first book that made John Steinbeck well known,” Atayde continued, “Ed Ricketts was not a shy person, but John Steinbeck was. John Steinbeck liked to talk to little groups of people, not big groups of people.”
After a tour of the National Steinbeck Center, students embarked on a scavenger hunt in small groups to visit landmark locations in Salinas that existed when Steinbeck lived there, such as Salinas High School and Salinas City Hall. After the scavenger hunt, we ate lunch at the Steinbeck House Restaurant, a non-profit organization that serves food and beverages at Steinbeck’s childhood home.
Later in the day, the group hiked to the top of Fremont Peak, Steinbeck’s favorite mountain, and saw beautiful views of the surrounding Gabilan Range and the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
Senior Kaya Bhandari said, “I had so much fun on the hike because I could really see where John Steinbeck got a lot of his inspiration, and it was especially fun after we had learned so much about his life over the course of the trip.”
