Moral Decay and the Power of the Talisman in Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64137/31079385/IJMHSS-V1I2P106Keywords:
Steinbeck, Talisman, Symbolism, Moral decay, Inherited guilt, Material culture, Capitalism, Mythmaking, Generational transmission, Narrative identityAbstract
This article examines the moral, symbolic, and generational significance of the talisman in John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent, arguing that the small pink stone functions as a dynamic emblem of ethical instability rather than a fixed source of guidance. Although originally the talisman was presented as a symbol of innocence, continuity, and family love, it slowly gets intertwined with the process of Ethan Hawley getting sucked into the world of moral relapse. The more deceptive and self-serving Ethan becomes, the more the talisman becomes a mirror of his psychological distress and the decay of the inherited principles in a capitalistic world where corruption, rather than integrity, is the way of the day. By critically examining some of the central scenes, such as the sleepwalking episode involving Ellen and the talisman, as well as the near-suicidal crisis involving Ethan, the article demonstrates the object as a means of spreading guilt, unconscious desire, and generational weight. The study places Steinbeck in terms of the critical perspectives by Kocela, Lieber, Heavilin, Zheng, Simkins, and Bedford in larger contexts of material culture, adaptive mythmaking, and the social life of objects. Eventually, it turns out that the talisman is no moralistic resolution but a reflection of ethical confusion that prevails in the world of consumptive economics. The uncertainty of the end is presented by Steinbeck as demonstrating the limits of human agency and the weight of inherited responsibility, and as revealing how symbols can both enlighten and subvert moral identity
References
[1] K. P. Nesakumari and Dr. M. Nagalakshmi, “Navigating Discontent: Postmodern Interpretations of Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent,” International Journal of English Language, Education and Literature Studies (IJEEL), vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 29–34, 2024, Doi: https://doi.org/10.22161/ijeel.3.3.6.
[2] R. Gualberto, “Reassessing John Steinbeck’s modernism: myth, ritual, and a land full of ghosts in ‘To a God Unknown,’” Journal of English Studies, vol. 16, pp. 113, 2018, Doi: https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.3404
[3] C. Kocela, “From Object Realism to Magic Materiality: The End(s) of Social Critique in Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent,” South Atlantic Review, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 68–86, 2008, Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/27784761
[4] Powers, “Diminishing the Discontent: A Biological Perspective on Ethan Allen Hawley and the New Baytown Tide Pool,” The Steinbeck Review, vol. 12, no. 2, p. 159, 2015, Doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/steinbeckreview.12.2.0159
[5] J. Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent. Penguin, 2008.
[6] M.M Ilhomovna, “John Steinbek's “The Winter of Our Discontent”: Interpretation of the Character and the Image of the Writer,” European Scholar Journal, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 18-20, 2020.
[7] Tammy Marshall, “What I Learned from The Winter of Our Discontent, Steinbecknow,” Steinbeck Now, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.steinbecknow.com/2017/02/05/what-i-learned-the-winter-of-our-discontent/
[8] The Winter of Our Discontent, Wikipedia. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winter_of_Our_Discontent
[9] M. R. Gladstein, “Steinbeck’s Perspectives on Capitalism,” in Capitalism and Commerce in Imaginative Literature: Perspectives on Business from Novels and Plays, E. W. Younkins, Ed., USA: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2016, pp. 1–468.
[10] W. S. Simkins, “Myth as Talisman: Adaptive Teleology in The Winter of Our Discontent,” Steinbeck Review, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 13–29, 2025
[11] Y. Dureau, “The Talisman or the Word as an Object and as an Image-Signifier,” Semiotica, vol. 2002, no. 139, 2002, Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.2002.022
[12] G. de, C. Leone, and R. Macedo, “Transmission of moral values between generations of families in conditions of social and economic vulnerability,” Journal of Human Growth and Development, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 213–221, 2023, Doi: https://doi.org/10.36311/jhgd.v33.14752
[13] A. C. Alves et al., “The meaning of life after a suicide attempt,” Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, vol. 36, pp. 17–23, 2022, Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2021.10.013
[14] D. E. Williams, “Zealous in the Cause of Liberty: Self-Creation and Redemption in the Narrative of Ethan Allen,” Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 325–347, 1990, doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/sec.1990.0019.
