42 pages • 1 hour read
The Winter Of Our Discontent
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Part 1, Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary
Married couple Ethan and Mary Hawley wake up on Good Friday. Despite the holiday, Ethan must go to work at Marullo’s grocery store. Ethan jokes with his wife, who seems to delight in his humor. Mary reminds him to pick up eggs so their children can dye them for Easter. Ethan sets off to work after admiring the house he inherited from his father. Ethan’s job starts early; he runs into several neighborhood pets, but the only other person he runs into is Joey Morphy, the bank teller. Joey is well-liked in the town for his sense of humor. Joey and Ethan walk downtown together; Joey tells Ethan that holiday weekends are big business for banks. Joey also tells Ethan about a friend of his who was held up in a bank robbery.
Ethan opens the grocery store. As he sweeps the doorstep, the banker, Mr. Baker, stops by and proposes that Ethan invest his wife’s money, newly acquired from her late brother’s will. Ethan does not want to risk losing the money and prefers to place it in a savings account for Mary in the event of his own death. Ethan’s family used to own Marullo’s grocery store; he inherited it from his father who lost it in the Great Depression. He responds to Mr. Baker’s proposal, saying that “’Men don’t get knocked out, […]. What kills them is erosion; they get nudged into failure’” (14). Mr. Baker responds that risk does not necessarily lead to loss, and that “foreigners” (15) are buying investments that should go to Americans. Mr. Baker accuses Ethan of disrespecting his family legacy, which began with the first white settlers of Baytown.
Margie Young-Hunt enters the store. Ethan finds her attractive, and Steinbeck’s description heavily sexualizes her. Ethan sees her as “a predator, a huntress” (15). She converses briefly with Ethan before he attends to another customer. When the woman leaves, Margie insinuates that Ethan should spend the night with her.
Marullo visits his store and scrutinizes Ethan’s work. He accuses Ethan of giving away money by being too generous with the customers. Ethan resents Marullo because Marullo is an immigrant who bought Ethan’s family’s business when Ethan’s father could no longer afford it. After Marullo leaves, a stranger arrives. He heard about Ethan through Margie, and the man offers Ethan a portion of the sales if he arranges a business deal between himself and the grocery store. Ethan rejects the man’s offer but thinks about the possibility of betraying Marullo.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary
Ethan returns home dispirited from the day. His children, Allen and Mary Ellen (Ellen for short), greet him and tell him that they will be entering an essay contest to win a trip to Washington, D.C. Mary tells him that Margie visited to read her fortune with tarot cards. Margie foresees that Ethan will become one of the wealthiest, most prominent members of the town. Mary becomes annoyed with Ethan because she feels he judges Margie for being divorced. Mary accuses men in the town of sexually harassing Margie and then claiming she seduced them. Ethan tells Mary that he has been with Margie, but Mary does not believe him. Mary says she is tired of being poorer than other people in the town. She does not blame Ethan for losing their money, but she blames him for wallowing in self-pity and not trying to fix their financial situation. Ethan says he will rob a bank to win back her and the town’s respect.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary
Ethan wonders if Mary sleeps so well because she does not have to worry about what the new day will bring her; Ethan sleeps fitfully because he fears death and has to support his family. Unable to sleep, he leaves a note for Mary and sneaks out for a walk. Ethan admires his hometown of New Baytown. The Hawleys were among the first settlers of the town in the mid-18th century. Ethan grew up with stories from his father about their lineage, but neither Ethan nor his father was able to uphold the reputation and wealth of past generations. Ethan notes that it was resentment, not the Depression, that “ruined” the family. He recalls meeting Mary in Boston, just before he sailed off to war. Mary had been so devoted to him, he realizes that “Even if I hadn’t wanted to marry Mary, her constancy would have forced me to for the perpetuation of the world dream of fair and faithful women” (39).
Ethan meets Danny Taylor, his longtime friend who has become known for his alcoholism. He and Danny used to be as close, but Danny’s loss of status and his problems with addiction have turned Danny into someone whom the town pities. After a brief conversation with Danny, Ethan heads toward the town harbor, his place of comfort. He reflects on his resentment toward those who are concerned with making money and wonders why he feels that way.
On the way home, he stops to give Danny a dollar. He asks Danny why he will not sell his family land in the countryside. Danny explains that his land is the only thing that still makes him Danny Taylor. Danny rejects Ethan’s pity and thinks his life is better than Ethan’s anyway, since Danny is not a clerk.
Ethan runs into the town’s night police officer, Wee Willie, a notorious gossip who teases Ethan about being up late at night with another woman.
When Ethan returns home, Mary wakes up and asks him where he has been. Again, Ethan wonders about how little he and Mary truly know each other.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary
Ethan is eager to go to work because he wants to avoid Mary. He reflects that he and Mary do not truly listen to one another. On his way to work, he meets Stonewall Jackson Smith, the daytime police officer. Ethan asks him to check in on Danny. Stonewall Jackson tells Ethan about an unsolved bank robbery that happened nearby. As Ethan opens the grocery store, Joey enters the bank. The two men chat about money, and Joey advises Ethan that the first rule to acquiring money is that money begets money, which is why so many people are left out of the cycle of wealth. Ethan pontificates to the items in the grocery store, wondering aloud about the ways in which people are cruel and steal from one another.
Margie visits the store, and Ethan admires her body. Mr. Baker stops by to ask Ethan if he has thought more about his investment idea. Ethan sets up a meeting with Mr. Baker for the next day, after church. Ethan continues his conversation with Margie, and asks if she truly likes his wife, Mary. He notes that they are very different. Margie says she loves Mary and calls Mary lucky for having Ethan’s love. After she has left, Ethan feels guilty about admiring her body, wondering how little he has noticed her as a person before.
Marullo stops in, and Ethan suggests he go back to Sicily for vacation, to visit family and help his arthritis. When he leaves, the stranger who wants to make a deal with Ethan drops by. He proposes the deal again, and Ethan agrees to think about it. Ethan receives a phone call from Mary, who tells him she has invited Margie to dinner.
Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary
Ethan returns home, where Mary is cleaning the house for Margie’s visit. Ethan changes while his son, Allen, plays with Ethan’s Knight Templar sword and hat. Ethan recalls his attic, where he keeps treasured family books and furniture. Allen wants to explore the books for information for his essay. Allen says he wants to win the prize money and buy his father an automobile so other people stop mocking him. Ellen visits with her father and tells him she is tired of being poor; he loves Ellen even though there are qualities about her that he dislikes.
The dinner with Margie is pleasant. When Ethan pours rum, Mary and Margie tease him for making the dinner a party. Mary says Ethan is happy about Margie’s card reading, which makes Ethan internally seethe with anger. Ethan proposes that Margie do a blindfolded card reading to test her first predictions. Mary becomes uncomfortable with Ethan and his drinking. Margie shares that her family is from Alaska when Russia still owned the state. Her great-grandmother was sentenced to prison in Alaska for witchcraft. Margie agrees to do another card reading. Margie declares that she still sees a fortune in Ethan’s future, but something in the reading bothers her. She hurries to get ready to leave.
Part 1, Chapters 1-5 Analysis
Ethan Hawley is the protagonist and narrator of The Winter of Our Discontent. His life is passing him by without his noticing, but other people are very aware of Ethan’s apathy and failure. Because Ethan is both the main character and the narrator, Steinbeck’s themes stem from Ethan’s deep self-reflection and his perceptions of other characters. Ethan often bemoans his inability to truly know other people, such as his wife, Mary. The narrative point-of-view mirrors this inner conflict because the reader cannot know anything that Ethan does not know. Secondary characters highlight, compliment, or juxtapose qualities of the protagonist. Because of Ethan’s sharply reflective but deeply self-conscious first-person narration, the secondary characters in this novel serve as implications of a reputation of which Ethan is only beginning to be aware. Through Ethan’s eyes, the reader sees how the secondary characters teach Ethan to reflect on his own self.
Ethan’s status as a grocery store clerk is shocking to other townspeople. Though men are expected to work in New Baytown, middle-class work like being a banker or a businessperson is respectable while working-class work is considered inferior. Ethan works as a clerk in a business owned by another man. Within the social structure of the town, this means that Ethan places himself in an inferior position, which is an embarrassment, given his family’s reputation. In Steinbeck’s interpretation, Ethan is honorable because he works hard with his own hands. In Steinbeck novels, bankers and men of power are enemies of the working class. Thus, while the townspeople judge Ethan for his employment, Steinbeck portrays Ethan’s job as noble.
Ethan’s character development is at the heart of the novel. His journey begins right away, as he notices people who are a constant part of his background life prompt him to think about his apathy and potential. Ethan is satisfied with his life, but through the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle hints of his neighbors and family, he starts to question his status as a man, a provider, and a citizen of New Baytown. Central to this inner conflict is Ethan’s family history. The Hawley family is among the original settlers of New Baytown. Somewhere along the way, starting with his father, the Hawleys steadily lost their fortune, and with it, their power in New Baytown. Ethan’s satisfaction with his life confuses his family and friends, because it signifies an apathy towards his current financial situation and a lack of concern of his lost family legacy.
Though Ethan does not care about money, he becomes obsessed with other people’s opinions of him. His family complains about being poor, and his neighbors urge him to consider investing money to reclaim his legacy. Ethan’s concerns about money stem from the Depression, in which stock investments plummeted, demonstrating how quickly money and status can be lost. But everyone else wants Ethan to take risks, which highlights Ethan’s battle against the larger American capitalist system that informs the mindset of the secondary characters.
An implied conflict in Ethan’s perception as lazy or apathetic is the fear of white poverty. It is incomprehensible to the townspeople of New Baytown that Ethan would be satisfied working for another man—an immigrant, no less—in a grocery store and living paycheck to paycheck while supporting his wife and children. This novel takes place in the 1960s, a period in which socioeconomic strata were based heavily on a racial caste system. That a white man with the privilege of ancestral wealth would be poor and would accept that poverty challenges notions of white supremacy. If Ethan could come from power, wealth, and privilege and still end up poor, then the logic of white supremacy is flawed, a reality that the ruling class of New Baytown, and by extension America, cannot abide.
This attitude is also tied to the pitiable Danny Taylor, who has fallen from power and prestige in more extreme ways than Ethan. Danny was once part of an illustrious family. Now houseless and overcome by addiction, Danny is a constant reminder to both Ethan and the other townspeople that the potential to become poor and debased lies in all of them. Danny and Ethan’s descent into poverty parallels the rise of immigrant success. Marullo owns the grocery store Ethan’s family once owned. That Ethan now works for Marullo, a Sicilian immigrant, is an affront to White America. Marullo is a figure of suspicion to many people in the town because he is considered an outsider. The townspeople believe that the more Ethan fails, the more Marullo succeeds, though there is no direct correlation in the novel between their fortunes. Marullo has proven that immigrants are capable of financial success and on par with, and in some cases greater than, white people of privilege. This is a direct threat to the community’s perception of their white superiority.
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