Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism

I can't find my old questions and I kind of think they don't really make sense with this article anyway. I loved this article though. I thoroughly enjoy when pieces of a puzzle come together like Steinbeck's ideas stemming from those of Blakean poetry. There are some pretty distinct points that Steinbeck modifies from Blake and from a Christian sense as well. I think the biggest theme was that of "from innocence to experience" which the entire Joad family and many of the people they had met or traveled with learned. The Joad family went from the innocence of their farm in Oklahoma to experience the journey to California where they grow and learn more than they probably ever had in their entire lives in Oklahoma. Following the experience of California was a higher innocence at the end when Rose of Sharon saves the old man's life. This is relateable to Blake's poetry when he discusses the three stages of innocence which are 1. childhood = innocence, 2. growing older = experience, and 3. Christ = higher innocence. Another main idea that Steinbeck modified from Blake was the idea that "Everything that lives is holy." which is simply changed from Blake's words, "All that lives is holy." Steinbeck shows this with Rose of Sharon in the final scene with Rose of Sharon as well. She becomes a protector, just like her mother because she now has that motherly instinct even though she lost her child. Ma realizes that it's not just all about yourself, or your family, but sometimes you have to things for other people and as Casy said, it's everyone in it together, just one big spirit. So, Rose of Sharon saves that man even though he's not family, she does it for the good of humanity which reiterates the statement that "Everything that lives is holy." One thing we brought up in class also came to my attention as I read this article and that was the statement that some must suffer for others to prosper. This is true for Steinbeck when he discusses the man who manuevers the tractor versus the Joad family losing their house. For that man to put food on the table for him family, he had to knock down their house, so for him to prosper, the Joad's had to suffer. Blake writes something similar in his poetry in Songs of Experience, "Pity would be no more/ If we did not make somebody Poor;/ And Mercy no more could be/ If all were as happy as we./ And mutual fear brings peace,/ Till the selfish loves increase. (p. 217). I thought that tied in perfectly with what we discussed as class in our Socratic Seminar. Overall I found this article very intriguing though, definitely not as dry as the last ones we did on Heart of Darkness!