Writing Flaws Displayed in Steinbecks Sweet Thursday :: Steinbeck Sweet Thursday Essays

Writing Flaws Displayed in Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday Steinbeck's novel takes place on the coast of California, centered around one town: Monterey. When Doc returns home from war, Mack, one of his closest friends, tells him the stories of all the people who used to and still live in their town. Lee Chong, another one of Doc's closest friends, has moved away, and Joseph and Mary Rivas have taken over the grocery story. Fauna, whose original name is Flora, has taken over the Bear Flag, which still remains to be a prostitute house. Doc then comes to understand that through time, many people have changed. Doc is a middle-aged man who begins to experience great discontent and tries to understand life's purposes. In addition, Doc is struggling with writing an informative paper about marine biology. The people of the town see his discontent, so they try to devise plans to make Doc happier, the way he used to be before the war. Doc's main interest is Marine Biology, which is his occupation, so he decides to take a trip to La Jolla in order to search for octopi and have time to think. Upon returning, he meets a new girl named Suzy. Suzy is the newcomer to the Bear Flag. She fits into the town well, but just doesn't seem like she quite belongs at the Bear Flag. Doc, who was never interested in women or love before, begins to take an interest in Suzy, as Suzy does in him. This is the point were the entire story changes. Doc's focus starts to be on Suzy, which causes him to be happier. The town sees his happiness and starts to try to make Doc and Suzy close enough to where they would want to get married. Though many problems and mistakes occur, Doc and Suzy are faced with many struggles, mainly on one day, Sweet Thursday. However, the issues of this day result in the way that they both wish their lives to be, which is together. The story line of John Steinbeck's novel, Sweet Thursday (1954), is directly correlated with the author's style of writing. This change detracted from the overall enjoyment of the book. There are three main flaws that Steinbeck displayed in the novel that show this: a premature climax, an incomplete motif, and an unfinished conflict. Small town issues, incidents, and all of the characters begin the novel as the centered focus, which gives the reader an insight to all of the characters and their personalities.