[7][8] Characterizing The Pastures of Heaven as a collection of short stories rather than a novella, Saturday Review (November 26, 1932), praises Steinbeck for an aptitude that promises "richly human fiction" limited by merely "journalistic talent rather than of a creative imagination".
Praising the collection's "excellent analytical narratives, written in supple prose", the review closes with this caveat: "If Steinbeck could add social insight to his present equipment he would be a first-rate novelist".
[16] The Pastures of Heaven, The Red Pony (1933) and Tortilla Flat (1935) are story-cycles not in the formal sense in that they incorporate anecdotes that can be separately read with pleasure into a loose framework that gives them additional meaning .... — Biographer Warren French in John Steinbeck (1975)[17] The organization of the book's narrative into ten "chapters" has elicited commentary among critics.
"[18][19][20] As a series of "autonomous stories" The Pastures of Heaven may be classified with "short-story cycles" comparable to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (1919) or William Faulkner's The Unvanquished (1938).
[25] Literary critic Robert S. Hughes, Jr. emphasizes that the Munroe family exerts a passive, but often decisive influence, serving as "the catalyst but not the true cause of the downfall of several of their unsuspecting neighbors".
[28] In a May, 1931 letter to literary agent Mavis McIntosh, Steinbeck explained how devise the setting and thematic material for his story cycle: There is, about twelve miles from Monterey, a valley in the hills called Corral de Tierra [earthen corridor].
Every place they went dissension sprang up…[29][30]During the early pastoral period of California colonial occupation in 1776, a Spanish corporal and his mounted troopers pursue and capture a group of Indians - fugitive slaves from the Carmelo mission.
En route, the corporal is enchanted by a lovely and verdant valley he dubs Las Pasturas del Cielo; he vows to return and settle there.
[31][32] Warren French writes: "[T]he defeat of [the corporal's] dreams established the pattern for the tales constituting the book, which become - through the presence of the Munroe family - a novel than simply a collection of short stories.
The seventeen-year-old Jimmie Munroe, styling himself a "casanova" attempts to seduce Alice at a local party and steals a kiss: gossip ensues.
[36][37]Warren French suggests that the Wicks family "may have been served by the destruction of an illusion" thereby freeing Shark, Katherine and Alice from their stultifying existence in the valley.
Though lacking any aptitude for reading and writing, he reveals an extraordinary talent for drawing highly naturalistic and accurate images of local animals on the chalkboard.
Critic French places Tularecito in the same category as William Faulkner's Benjy Compson in The Sound and the Fury (1929) and Steinbeck's Lennie in Of Mice and Men (1937).
That evening Maria returns home to find Rosa in tears: the sheriff visited that afternoon and has shut down the restaurant, terming it a "bad house".
Innocent and sensitive, Molly suffers from the effects of an impoverished childhood and the long absences of her much-beloved and alcoholic father, George Morgan.
Declining to inquire as to the man's identity, the mere possibility that he might be George Morgan induces Molly to resign and flee the valley to avoid abandoning her illusions.
The "well-made" plot offers a "composite picture" of Molly's painful and lonely youth, revealing her neurotic worship of a delinquent and alcoholic father.
Molly's delusional, infantile fantasies concerning the absent George Morgan and terror at confronting the truth; more troubling because her flight from the Pastures indicates that "she knew new her father's real character".
[53] According to French, Bert Munroe's role is especially pernicious: "[H]is crude humor becomes a cruel weapon" which leads to the departure "of an innocent, sensitive girl who is an unqualified asset to the community that loves her".
Rather than simply decline, Bert proceeds to justify his distaste for executions, disgorging a bizarre childhood memory of witnessing an inept butchering of a chicken by a neighbor.
[56][57] Though lacking in empathy, Banks is neither cruel nor morbid: his desire to observe hangings is a vicarious means of experiencing profound emotion through the reactions of others who also witness the execution.
"[60] Steinbeck finds Banks' limited grasp of the enormity of death benign compared to Munroe's morbid fascination, which he conceals under his self-righteousness.
Finally free from parental tyranny, he seeks companionship in formal social activities: the school board, the Masons, and the Odd Fellows but forms no intimate friendships.
Admiring the roses, Mae remarks that the farmhouse reminds her of a picture postcard of a lovely Vermont country home: perhaps Mr. Humbert will allow her to see the interior.
When Pat musters up enough courage to visit the Munroe home to invite Mae, he is informed by her father that she is engaged to a local boy, Bill Whiteside.
[63][64] Literary critic Richard S. Hughes praises the story for its "compact and tight organization…the narrative contains carefully-wrought imagery, reinforcing the mood of the various scenes".
His delusional fantasy that Mae Munroe might be his wife moves him to action: he vigorously dismantles the interior of the house that his domineering parents had occupied for decades, an act of liberation.
[69][70] Richard S. Hughes identifies four symbols associated with the Whiteside mansion: the white paint that perpetually covers the house; the New England style slate roof; the sitting room with its bookshelf containing the works of Herodotus, Xenophon, and Thucidydes; and especially the Meerschaum pipe and its successive color transformations.
[71][72] In terms of the irony that Steinbeck's inserts into every story, the fiery inferno that consumes the Whiteside house is entirely predictable: "We are prepared for it from the very beginning of the tale."
[73] The chapter serves to bookend the collection: sightseers gaze longingly on the golden and fertile valley, each imagining the wonderful gifts it might hold for them.