Feature Story
Walla Walla Library:
How Content Are you This Winter?
It's been a long winter. Frozen ground, feet of snow, mountains of debt. But the Walla Walla Library's Booked for Winter program reminds us that great things can come from times of struggle—namely, literature.
Now in its second year, the library's winter reading and discussion series is a book club led by Walla Walla Community College instructors and open to the public. The teachers, representing many different academic disciplines, choose the books and then host a roundtable discussion. This year's program will culminate on Thursday, March 22, at 7 p.m. Philosophy professor John Stratton's choice for the evening's discussion, John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent, perfectly epitomizes this year's theme—"From Times of Struggle".
Set in a small New England town, Steinbeck's final novel charts the moral demise of a man facing an economic crisis. Ethan Hawley, an upstanding family man, sees his family's history of wealth and reputation reversed by carelessness and bad decisions. With the family fortune in shambles, Ethan now works as a clerk in the store he once owned. His financial troubles are compounded by his personal sense of failure and the rebukes he hears from his wife and children. As the pressure mounts on his shoulders, Ethan resorts to bribery, deceit and betrayal in an attempt to regain his wealth and social standing.
When Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize, he was praised as "an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American," as exemplified in this novel.
The Booked for Winter discussion on March 12th is the perfect excuse to dust off a forgotten classic. The timeless story and its contemporary themes are sure to inspire a spirited discussion. Steinbeck's novel may be just what we need to melt away our gloomy winter and usher in a glorious spring.
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