“When a condition or a problem
becomes too great, humans have the protection of not thinking about it.
But it goes inward and minces up with a lot of other things already
there and what comes out is discontent and uneasiness, guilt and a
compulsion to get something–anything–before it is all gone.” ― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent
Sometimes I wonder about strange coincidences. In an email exchange
with Marc (Hardscrabble Farmer) in the Fall, he mentioned he had begun
reading Steinbeck’s Winter of Our Discontent and planned to write an
article about it. Coincidentally, I had just bought a used copy of the
same novel at Hooked on Books in Wildwood. I didn’t plan on buying it,
but I’ve read most of Steinbeck’s brilliant novels and felt compelled by
the title and our national state of discontent to select it from among
the thousands of books in the store.Marc had posted his Steinbeck-esque article in December, but I didn’t read it until I had finished the novel. Marc’s perspective on the value of money and his diametrically opposite path from Ethan Hawley, the discontented anti-hero of Steinbeck’s final novel, was enlightening and thought provoking. I’m sure it impacted my consciousness as I wrote this article.
Steinbeck’s title was taken from Shakespeare to reflect the unhappiness of Ethan Hawley at the outset of the novel. The quote, “Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York”, is the first line of Shakespeare’s Richard III, written in 1594. Shakespeare was using the summer/winter weather as a metaphor for the fortunes of the English House of York and its rivalry with the Plantagenets for the English throne. The ‘sun of York’ was a comment on the ‘son of York’ Edward IV, a harbinger of better times ahead. This theme of discontent was true in 1594, in 1961 when Steinbeck published his final novel, and is true today, as discontent blows across the land like a deadly polar vortex. At this point, it is difficult to see better times ahead..........https://www.theburningplatform.com/2019/02/20/winter-of-our-discontent-meets-fyre-festival/
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