Steinbeck's Portrayal Of The Hamilton Family

Taken by itself, the saga of the Hamilton family is an intricately crafted portrayal of Steinbeck’s loving, often sentimental view of Americana. The neuroses and passions of Samuel Hamilton and his descendants amid the turn of the century’s changing world form the backdrop to the Cain-and-Abel allegory lived out by the Trasks. But that is all the Hamiltons are – a backdrop. They are setting more than character, a social commentary that exists separate from and unhindered by the rise and fall of Adam Trask, the novel’s true focus. This is not to detract from the elegance and love with which the Hamiltons are depicted. Steinbeck’s status as the American author derives from his powers of description of American places and American lives, and his writing is at its finest when these powers are unleashed upon his own heritage. Every member of his family is written with the utmost admiration for their glories and real sympathy for their failures, and readers can see Steinbeck himself represented in his fictional ancestors, furthering the novel’s exploration of heredity. He will not apologize for his idealism, he says; it’s in his blood. His “And this I believe” passage is the culmination of generations of Hamilton exploration, invention, struggle and dreams.
Steinbeck is a talented marksman of Chekov’s gun; …show more content…
The real plot and themes of the novel are buried under his ancestor worship and historical documentation. To wax poetic about the Salinas of his boyhood and the mentalities of his family, Steinbeck must tear away from the Trasks’ story. The Hamilton element, while intriguing and eloquent, does not complement the novel. As Lee points out, the inner struggle between good and evil and the ensuing Cain-and-Abel narrative is universal. Grounding it so deeply in reality and history is illogical and detrimental to the fable-like quality of the