John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat

Cecilia Donohue (Independent Scholar - North America)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1935

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Published in 1935, Tortilla Flat was the first of John Steinbeck’s works to receive critical attention and acclaim. Written in a warm, conversational, storytelling voice that would characterize many other works of Steinbeck including The Pearl, Tortilla Flat provides a vivid, vignette-laden portrait of the paisanos, who sport “a mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexican, and assorted Caucasian bloods” (2), as they navigate through life in the multicultural town of Monterey, California, a frequent setting of the author’s writings.

Tortilla Flat’s narrative is centred on two male characters. Upon his return to post-World War I America, Danny learns that he has inherited t…

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1401 words

Citation: Donohue, Cecilia. "Tortilla Flat". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 October 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8402, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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