I kinda copied this out because I was trying to move it to another word document - now I'm writing another essay... ;-;
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Jon -------
Ms. -------
English 10 Accel
28 September 2014
The Winter of Our Discontent: A Steep Price
In this world, all good things come with a price. Nothing comes totally free of charge, and some things are worth more than others. Like everything, wealth also comes at a price. Unfortunately, if it isn’t obtained and controlled properly and with care, the price can be quite steep. If wealth isn’t used towards good, it can corrupt. Often times morality is exchanged for the sole purpose of wealth. The status of someone or how much money they possess grow to be more important than doing the right thing and being a fair person, all because they crave it more than anything. In the Steinbeck novel The Winter of Our Discontent, wealth symbolizes a prime example of evil and corruption because of the way it is obtained and utilized. Overpowering morality, it betrays many of the characters who once were known as honest and kind people. This conflict relates to many of the characters, but most closely to Ethan’s boss Marullo, his son Allen, and Ethan himself.
Once upon a time Marullo’s store belonged to the Hawley family. However, due to some bad financial decisions by Ethan’s father and a recession, they went bankrupt and were forced to sell the store. Marullo, an Italian immigrant, bought it and later on Ethan was hired as a grocery store clerk at the store. As a businessman, Marullo’s operations were not exactly the most honest to the customers. He explains to Ethan that to make the most profit, Ethan should sell as much of the food as he can even if it isn’t top quality. For example, he tells Ethan to cut off less of the cauliflower leaves since cauliflower is sold by weight and the more sold the more money they earn. Also, Ethan is told to sprinkle the dry lettuce heads with water to give them the appearance of crispy and fresh lettuce. Marullo explains that “you’ve got to learn the tricks or you’ll go broke”. He also states that “Business is money. Money is not friendly. Kid, maybe you too friendly—too nice. Money is not nice. Money got no friends but more money.” While Ethan is busy caring about being decent and friendly, Marullo cares more about running a good business and staying in business, even if that business isn’t completely honest. Although many of Marullo’s points are completely valid in the business world, it still doesn’t make them morally correct. Marullo has shown by his actions that he has chosen wealth over morality.
The conflict of wealth and morality also connects to Ethan’s son Allen. Allen expresses his dissatisfaction of living in a poor family. He brings up how a boy in his school won a lot of money off of magazine contests. The boy isn’t smart—he just used tricks and gimmicks to give himself audience interest. Allen’s perspective on wealth is that ‘it’s all dough, no matter how you get it.” His point is that he doesn’t care if he has to be dishonest in order to gain wealth. With this, he is ranking wealth above morality. Furthermore, he is ashamed that his family doesn’t have a television or a car. Because of Allen’s attitude towards wealth, Ethan starts to question if being a good, honest person is a good a thing as he thought it was. Allen then begins to write an essay for a magazine contest. Later in the novel, they find out that Allen was one of five youth to win honorable mention for the essay contest. Thus, he wins a new watch and a chance to be featured on television and interviewed. Unfortunately, a while later Ethan is confronted by the organizers of the contest and informed that Allen has plagiarized his essay from books and speeches of political figures throughout American history. The reason why Allen cheated was because according to him, everyone does it. Allen’s morals gave up the fight and allowed himself to be overpowered and corrupted by the thought of wealth.
At the beginning of the novel, Ethan is the light where darkness drapes upon the land. He is the honest man that many aren’t; the man who cares about doing the right thing and working hard rather than gaining wealth. This is shown by many scenes throughout part one where he repeatedly blocks people attempting to get him to make money unfairly. Towards the beginning, Ethan is confronted by a business man from B. B. D. and D. who offers him a discount if he switches from the company they normally buy food from to his company. Even though he’d save 5% and the money saved would go directly to him, Ethan refuses the offer because he feels it would be double-crossing Marullo - he wouldn’t have permission and Marullo wouldn’t know. He doesn’t seem to be displeased with his life, and at this point, he hasn’t yet been depraved by wealth and is still able to resist temptations of all kinds. Unfortunately, he is influenced and pressured by many of his friends to make dishonest decisions for the sole purpose of becoming wealthy. His family grows tired of being known as poor and are ashamed of themselves. Ethan is encouraged by his wife Mary, her friend Margie, and his banker Mr. Baker to persue his fortune. Mr. Baker informs Ethan about the town plans to build an airport in Baytown. However, only one place is flat enough - the land owned by Ethan’s childhood friend, Danny Taylor. Danny is the town drunk and was ever since he came back from serving in the war. Planning to help Danny, Ethan offers him $1000 to get his life back on track and take advantage of the land to sell it for the airfield. Danny takes the money but promises that he won’t ever get better. Later on, Ethan discovers that Marullo may in fact be an illegal immigrant and decides to turn his boss into the authorities. He withdraws $5000 from the bank for the purpose of offering to buy the store from Marullo, but realizing that it won’t be enough to continue running the store, decides to rob the bank, using Joey’s advice, for extra money. Right when Ethan is about to execute his plan, he is interrupted by a federal man and therefore is unable to rob the bank. However, Marullo is caught by the authorities and is going to be deported. Because Marullo knows Ethan to be an honest man, he leaves Ethan the store. Ethan also learns about Danny’s death - with the money Ethan lent him, he drunk himself to death. In Danny’s will, he leaves Ethan all his land. Upon hearing that Ethan now owns the land needed for the airfield, Baker offers him 51% of the corporation in exchange for the land. All along, Ethan’s master plan was indeed to scam Danny out of the land. He was perfectly aware that Danny most likely wouldn’t live, but wealth corrupted him and led him to choose immoral decisions. Fortunately, Ethan's light hasn’t yet fully burned out. He starts having second thoughts about whether all this wealth and fame was really worth all that he had done to hurt other people around him. His sense of morality finally returns when hearing that Allen plagiarized his entire I Love America essay. He realizes what he has done and decides to commit suicide. At the bay, reaching into his pocket for razor blades to slit himself, he pulls out the family talisman. Throughout Ethan’s life, the talisman has symbolized life and hope for the future. Realizing Ellen has shoved his treasured talisman in his pocket, he is filled with a sense of comfort and belief and scrambles home to return the talisman to its new owner lest another light go out. In the end, Ethan’s light shone stronger than the gusts of wealthy corruption. He sacrifices his own needs and desires in order to provide hope for the next generation.
Wealth, like all things, isn’t free. However, although the price may be steep, it is not always harsh. In the Winter of Our Discontent, wealth just happened to corrupt the morals and values of many of the characters. Marullo, Allen, Ethan, and others all got caught up in trying to grow rich that they totally forgot about making honest decisions for themselves and the people around them. Fortunately, wealth does not have to corrupt - when obtained and used in the right ways and not just for the individual, wealth can be utilized for good. When that happens, humanity can truly progress and flourish.