Talk:The Winter of Our Discontent
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[edit] Summary requires rewriting=
The plot summary is oddly written and inaccurate. It sounds like it was lifted directly out of a poor Cliff's Notes summary. "The story resolves when Ethan gives the town drunk/bum enough money to get so incredibly intoxicated as to die shortly thereafter of acute alcohol poisoning" - this sentence is ridiculous. Hawley speaks of Danny Taylor like a brother, not as a "bum". Taylor commits suicide with sleeping pills, not by alcohol poisoning. The summary fails to elaborate on the Hawley family's past, the bank robbery ploy, and Margie's character.
I don't trust my literary skills enough to rewrite this section, but it clearly needs serious work. 70.152.49.206 20:24, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Johnsteinbeck TheWinterOfOurDiscontent.jpg
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[edit] Uneven, Lacking credibility, Unfinished?
IMO this novel is one of the most uneven in Steinbeck's oeuvre. Some ideas a developed with characteristic thoroughness and aplomb; but others lack credibility, with characters acting contrarily to the personalities with Steinbeck imbued them with. We also encounter plot elements being introduced, then left as loose ends. Altogether, the novel gives the impression of having been rushed through editing.
As for lack of credibility/integrity, how do we deal with the transformation of quiet, mild mannered Ethan, honest, but afraid to step over his own shadow at the beginning, into a man planning an unlikely armed bank robbery (next door to the shop he works in, nonetheless!), icily dispatching his childhood friend in a plot to gain control over the town council, and betraying his employer (who also departs from script to adopt a naive and sentimental persona) to federal agents.
An example of an undeveloped plot element is Margie's consternation upon reading Ethan's horoscope. (Was Steinbeck preparing the way for a metaphysical explanation for Ethan's transformation?)
I'm tempted to bring up some of these points in the article. Opinions?
--Philopedia 15:58, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
