The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Ethan Allen Hawley: Main protagonist, sometimes narrator. Harvard educated grocery store clerk from established old family in Baytown. Disillusioned, he thinks too much and is too hard on himself; with the result that he gets very hard on some fairly innocent others.
• Mary Hawley: Ethan's wife. A cheerful, charming, beloved woman.
• Allen Hawley: Ethan and Mary's son, 14.
• Ellen Hawley: Ethan and Mary's daughter, 13.
• Danny Taylor: Ethan's best friend; a hopeless drunk.
• Alfio Marullo: Ethan's boss, very politically incorrectly referred to as a wop with accompanying prejudices. A good man with bad habits or a bad man with good habit? Trying to redeem himself.
• Margie Young-Hunt: Mary Hawley's friend, would-be seducer of Ethan.
• Mrs. Baker: Add a description of this character.
• John Steinbeck
• Joey Morphy
• Willie
• Deborah
• Mr. Hartog
• Walder
• Mary Ellen
• Porlock

Quotes edit see section history

• “"Like never take the first offer, and like, if somebody wants to sell, he's got a reason, and like, a thing is only as valuable as who wants it." "That the quick course?" "That's it, but it don't mean nothing without the first." "Money gets money?" "That cuts a lot of us out." "Don't some people borrow?" "Yeah, but you have to have credit and that's a kind of money." "Guess I better stick to groceries." "Looks like. Hear about <...>"”

  Joey Morphy (1st speaker) and Ethan

• “"Money not only has no heart but no honor nor any memory. Money is respectable automatically if you keep it a while. You must not think I am denouncing money. I admire it very much."”

  Ethan

• “Sometimes a man seems to reverse himself so that you would say, 'He can't do that. It's out of character.' Maybe it's not. It could be just another angle, or it might be that the pressures above or below have changed his shape. You see it in war a lot--a coward turning hero and a brave man crashing in flames. Or you read in the morning paper about a nice, kind family man who cuts down wife and children with an ax. I think that a man is changing all the time. But there are certain moments when the change becomes noticeable. <...> It's as though certain events and experiences nudged and jostled me in the direction contrary to my normal one or the one I had come to think was normal--the direction of the grocery clerk, the failure, the man without real hope or drive, barred in by responsibilities <...>, caged by habits and and attitudes I thought of as being moral, even virtuous. And it may be that I had a smugness about being what I called a 'Good Man.'"”

  Ethan

• “Have any of the great fortunes we admire been put together without ruthlessness? I can't think of any. And if I should put the rules aside for a time, I knew I would wear scars but would they be worse than the scars of failure I was wearing? To be alive is to have scars.”

  Ethan

• “No man wants advice--only corroboration.”

  Ethan

• “The incident seemed to prove to me that intentions, good or bad, are not enough. There's luck or fate or something else that takes over accidents.”

  Ethan

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• In poverty she is envious. In riches she may be a snob. Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms.”

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• No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.

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• And if I should put the rules aside for a time, I knew I would wear scars but would they be worse than the scars of failure I was wearing? To be alive at all is to have scars.

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• A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of prejudice, some paint it with their own delight. A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept wonders.

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• There’s an awful lot of inactive kindness which is nothing but laziness, not wanting any trouble, confusion, or effort.

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• So many old and lovely things are stored in the world’s attic, because we don’t want them around us and we don’t dare throw them out.

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• When a condition or a problem becomes too great, humans have the protection of not thinking about it. But it goes inward and minces up with a lot of other things already there and what comes out is discontent and uneasiness, guilt and a compulsion to get something—anything—before it is all gone.

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• “Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York.”

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• There’s something desirable about anything you’re used to as opposed to something you’re not.

  Highlighted by 38 Kindle customers

• What’s good for one is bad for another, and you won’t know till after.” The old bastard might have helped me then, but perhaps it wouldn’t have made any difference. No one wants advice—only corroboration.

  Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• grocery store downtown Baytown: Ethan works in a grocery store which used to belong to his family, but now he is merely a clerk there.
• The Hawley house: This is Ethan's ancestral home, where his wife and children live. It is all that still remains of the importance of his family.
• the Place: This is where Ethan goes to think, to meditate on life. It's his escape. The Place is right on the water, near the docks, where he can be seen from the water, but not from the shore.
• New Baytown
• New York
• High Street
• America
• Sicily
• Washington
• Italy
• Montauk
• Old Harbor

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Right vs. Wrong: Throughout the novel, Ethan and his family are tempted by trials of morality. Ethan's triumph over these trials is the "pay off" of the novel.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Edge of Sadness.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. John Steinbeck (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Susan Shillinglaw

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ3.S8195
• Dewey: 813.52

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › Classics › Steinbeck, John
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( S ) › Steinbeck, John
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

More Books Like This edit see section history