John Steinbeck's To a God Unknown: The Clearing Cycle and the Monterey Metaphysics of Ricketts, Steinbeck, and Campbell

Abstract

Abstract Written during his time living in Monterey, Steinbeck's early novel To a God Unknown (1933) may be used as a hermeneutic for assessing his metaphysics, which he developed from observations of natural cycles with marine biologist Ed Ricketts and a young Joseph Campbell. Their philosophical approach to the world—which Steinbeck describes as “speculative metaphysics” in The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)—emphasizes a holism that includes spirituality, ecology, and psychology. Steinbeck articulates this conception of reality in To a God Unknown. These beliefs and the vocabulary Steinbeck uses to describe them are heavily influenced by the company he kept—Ricketts and Campbell. A close reading of this novel illuminates his use of a cyclical organizing schema in the form of a recurring trope: a pine glade embedded with spirit that lends an ebb-and-flow pattern to the characters' psychological behavior and physical actions. The cyclical return of this important trope has thus far escaped critical attention, but is an important demonstration of Steinbeck's speculative metaphysics. In contrast to the erratic, demarcated chapter breaks in the novel, this organizational schema is consistent throughout and provides a subtle yet persuasive alternative reading of the book. In addition to elements of biographical and historical context, the critical lens in this article calls on Jungian psychoanalysis, Campbell's myth theories, Deep Ecology, and Anthropocene approaches—each appropriate to an explication of the holism of Steinbeck's work physically, metaphysically, and psychologically.