The Winter of Our Discontent (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: John Steinbeck
- First Published: 1961
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: 1960
- Setting: New Baytown, Long Island
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: 1960’s, Family or family life, United States or Americans, Parents and children, Crime or criminals, Robbery or robbers, Business or business people, Holidays, Scandal, Easter
- Locales: New Baytown, Long Island (fictive)
Characters Discussed
Ethan Allen Hawley, a storekeeper, the protagonist. As his name suggests, he is descended from a line of early pioneering Americans, but he has descended, too, into lower- class circumstances. The family fortune has been lost, and although he is a Harvard graduate and a veteran of World War II, he has been consigned to a clerkship in a grocery store. Like his ancestors, Ethan is an independent spirit, discontented with his lot but trying to keep a philosophical spirit about it. He resorts to delivering apostrophes—some learned, some ridiculous—to the...
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