Similar and Different Features in the Fiction of Sinclair Ross and John Steinbeck

Abstract

Two twentieth century novels written after and set during the Great Depression Era are in the focus of my dissertation. The books discussed are Sinclair Ross’s As For Me and My House (1941) and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, (1939). I have chosen these works since both of them are regarded as canonical novels in the United States and Canada respectively. They are both set in the 1930’s in the rural areas of the two countries, therefore bear similar features in many aspects. The authors’ choice of time and setting for the novels might seem obvious still my aim is to uncover their idiosyncratic backgrounds. On the one hand, I examine the similarities between the two novels within this frame of reference; on the other hand, I also seek the differences emerging from the same grounds.