All you have to do is read the first three paragraphs of The Grapes of Wrath to understand John Steinbeck's signature style. The first paragraph describes the natural world: the sun, clouds, rain, wind, dust, weeds, corn. The second paragraph introduces the animal kingdom, the gophers and ant lions, and their interaction with the natural world. And the third brings in humanity, the work teams and a walking man lifting dust into the stagnant air. You will see this technique repeated in East of Eden, though through a first person narrator and more epically, and in the second sentence of Tortilla Flat, when the author describes the inextricability of Danny, his friends, and his house, not to be taken as a structure but as much as a living thing as its residents. The settings of Steinbeck's stories are so vivid that the characters seem rooted in them, sprouting from the landscape like inevitable consequences of nature.
How does Steinbeck work this magic? Certainly, with a lot of patience during his writing process, with a singular, supreme command of language, and with a faith in his readers' ability to follow his narrative and appreciate his approach. Of course, he carefully studied his predecessors' approach to fiction. Note how Mark Twain opens Chapter 2 in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Henry James starts Portrait of a Lady. Yet Steinbeck the writer not only owned his birthplace of Salinas Valley in California, but the valley itself is forever associated with his characters. For this reason, we want to read Steinbeck, regardless of the story he is telling.
So how do we do the same? By writing about our roots, which no one in the world knows better than we do. By connecting our characters to their environment and their circumstances. By reading great writers the way Steinbeck did. It takes time, but oh, what a journey!
