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never had felt before. In fact, man's contentment is reflected in the self-sufficiency of God's world of trees and flowers. In Kanthapura', the wind in the trees and vegetation is the very life-force that runs through the entire universe and breathes life into every nook and corner. The Grandmother's voice becomes one with the ethereal quality of the wind. In fact, Moorthy's life-giving presence dominates the rural scene infusing the much-needed contemporary awareness to the otherwise tranquil villagers. Moorthy too gets infused with nature's life force in the prose. Cannery Row conveys a sense of timelessness not only in the figure of the old Chinaman, Doc, and Mack and the boys, but in the descriptions of the place that has the sea enveloping in from all sides. The power of natural forces is not to be forgotten at any point of time. In fact, a sense of timelessness that is felt in these different writings gets created out of the writers' intention of preserving the eternal values of life on earth as essential for any visualized ideal society. And timelessness, it seems, can exist only against the throbbing presence and not in the absence of nature.
The kind of comradeship that Steinbeck upholds in either Tortilla Flat or Cannery Row or The Grapes of Wrath or in fact, in all his novels, is not without a conscious purpose. By upholding this belief he conveys his own faith in the unassuming bonds of such a friendship which is not to be found existent in the relationship between a man and a woman.
In continuation with the themes of The Grapes of Wrath and Godaan, these four novels also have the peasant or subaltern at the centre of their thoughts stating thereby that human society is not and cannot be any other than a concern for the common man. Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row celebrate the sheer existence of the common Danny and his friends and Mack and the boys. Doc becomes a mouthpiece of the author when he says that it is the likes of Mac and the boys that guide the world and make it a better place to live in. Realism merges with this thought to support the ordinary and commonplace as actually occupying a unique, even distinguished place in the sequence of things. Steinbeck's symbolical description of the boiler remains in the reader's memory long after he has put the book down:
"The boiler looked like an old-fashioned locomotive without wheels. It had a big door in the centre of its nose and a low fire door. Gradually, it became red and soft with rust and gradually the mallow weeds grew up around it and the flaking rust fed the weeds. Flowering myrtle crept up its sides and the wild anise perfumed the air about it" (CR 407).
Likewise, both Samskara and Kanthapura blend their characters either with the simple joys of nature or with the simple and innocent day-to-day activities of routine. For Anantha Murthy in Samskara the self-denying Brahmin embraces the joys of communal living and revels in the village fair with the common man, Putta. Putta again, though a minor character in the novel, represents the subaltern who finds himself at the centre of things. He symbolizes the Hindu peasantry who so powerfully and significantly contributed to the forming of the Nation—the Modern India. Even before this change Praneshacharya has led a simple life of routine and devotion to his wife who is an invalid, for his consciousness is guided by his Hindu belief in self-sacrifice, self-denial, and devotion to one who is weaker both in body and spirit. Although Steinbeck is never in a framework where he has to deal with a similar situation, he too advocates the philosophy of giving and sharing as The Grapes of Wrath so explicitly unravels. However, self-denial or any such thing would be last on Steinbeck's list of things if not altogether absent. Self-denial for Steinbeck becomes relevant only in the very special context of supporting another life and saving it from destruction. In Samskara too the Brahmin learns
