Introduction / Harold Bloom -- The pearl and The old man and the sea : a comparative analysis / Edward E. Waldron -- Of mice and men : the dream of commitment / Louis Owens -- John Steinbeck's The red pony : a study in narrative technique / Howard Levant -- "Happy(?)-wife-and-motherdom" : the portrayal of Ma Joad in John Steinbeck's The grapes of wrath / Nellie McKay -- The front line of poverty / Jay Parini -- "Working at the impossible" : the presence of Moby-Dick in East of Eden / Robert DeMott -- Revisiting the Sea of Cortez with a "green" perspective / Clifford Eric Gladstein and Mimi Reisel Gladstein -- Natural wisdom : Steinbeck's men of nature as prophets and peacemakers / Marilyn Chandler McEntyre -- Steinbeck's light / David Wyatt -- Steinbeck and the depression / Morris Dickstein -- Chronology.