The Short-short Story of Mankind

The Short-Short Story of Mankind – John Steinbeck

The story goes round and round while moving along in some linear fashion – like the history of the wheel. Of course we are all going to want things and change things. It’s human nature. So, what’s Steinbeck’s point? He seems to think we’re no brighter than the cave people – just a bit more affluent. And, if that’s the case, there seems to be no point to this story at all. Steinbeck could have contributed to future sustainability by saving paper.

Comments:

From craw0069 - 11/14/06 1:28 PM

This work was called "Challenging imagination" and even the tilte of The short, short history of mankind is telling us that this story is supposed to be a parody. It is making fun of evolution. It does go round in cycles and circles because that is what 'progress' has done in society. The story appeared in a Playboy magazine. It was meant to be fun. The cavemen are not much removed from monkeys in some of their attitudes.

Both John and Andrew make good points when they realise that older people are still having trouble understanding younger people. I hoped a few pople would challenge the story more.

From melina - 11/10/06 10:53 AM

i will agree this story is pointless... but hasn't everyone?! it is, however, quite interesting, even if it isn't leading to anything. use your imagination!

From wilc0025 - 10/20/06 10:57 AM

This story in my opinion was a bit pointless, there was not much point behind it. The story bored me as the history part didnt match my interests. It my opinion it was a story which was made up of random and not interesting things..sorry

From mats0072 - 9/29/06 9:32 AM

I like this story because this story talk about like history and I like learn history. This book tell us human nature.

From lee0676 - 9/27/06 12:17 PM

I didn't see much point to the story as it just talked about a caveman family on the verge of starvation. However I do see the racist implications in the way that the younger people seem willing to mix with other people while the elderly hold to prejudice.

From bolt0059 - 9/26/06 8:19 AM

I think this story provided an interesting comparison between the modern world and the world of cave people. I thought it was interesting that Steinbeck provided many parallels with our ancient ancestors and explained that or world is still very similar to the ancient one except that it is now on a larger scale. As well as telling us about the past the story hints at our path for the future and describes our likely path as a species.

Andrew Bolt

From grix0001 - 9/26/06 8:10 AM

It seems that I wasn't the only one to find this story pointless and hard to understand completely.

However, when evolution was mentioned, I did think about how human beings have broken past the "survival of the fitest" scenario because we can now treat and cure some diseases and we have all these drugs to take care of our sicknesses. But could this lead to the extiction of man kind?? All that needs to happen is a out break of a disease that we can't fix, and humans would be no more!

Pauline, It's interesting that you find the story amusing. Your knowledge and wisdom sees things differently to us students, so you may see things that we don't.

From craw0069 - 9/26/06 5:13 AM

I am disappointed that so many have followed the negative feelings in the first blog. I found this story quite amusing. It is unusual to see cave people talking in this way. In fact they do hint at being inbred. I liked the infighting and the bizarre mention of evolution.

From ajda0002 - 9/22/06 9:39 AM

This story is extremely futile. It hardly has a point. I found it hard to comprehend, and I did not get the significance of the story at all… the story should have been a lot more extended so that it would be understood more clearly and described better… it seemed to ramble on about a pointless issue.

From ben - 9/22/06 8:04 AM

I had alot of trouble understanding this story and really it didnt make much sense to me.

As others have said i think this story is pointless.

Like the comment says. The tory seems togo around and around and IMO steinbeck seems to think we are still just cavemen.

From MWinter - 9/21/06 7:55 AM

I agree that this story is kind of pointless, to me it doesn’t really send a very strong message. I found the way it was written bitsey and hard to understand. I kind of knew what was going on but that didn’t really make sense. The message that just didn’t quiet get sent, I believe would have been better portrayed if the story was longer and less of ‘we are cave men, now we are a nation’ and it was explained a bit more. I know it’s the name and all but it defiantly needs to flow more. About the comment that he “should have contributed to future sustainabily by saving paper” I have one thing to say, harsh!

From iNode - 9/18/06 1:05 PM

"The story goes round and round while moving along in some linear fashion – like the history of the wheel. Of course we are all going to want things and change things. It’s human nature. So, what’s Steinbeck’s point? He seems to think we’re no brighter than the cave people – just a bit more affluent. And, if that’s the case, there seems to be no point to this story at all. Steinbeck could have contributed to future sustainability by saving paper."

The idea is that everything has a cycle, although we continue to advance it would be good to reflect on the past, gain ideas and check what we have done is truly benifical.

I take personal insult to the comment " Steinbeck could have contributed to future sustainability by saving paper". Everyone has a right to express there opinion, wether or not that opinion will be accepted by everyone else.

Truthfully he could have expressed more of a point in his writing and some of it did seem to rave on, it would have been really good to have a better point to the story.

From VeLl - 9/14/06 1:52 PM

Again the world goes round and round while still continuing to advance in a straight line aiming for unforseen limits or simply a world without such limits. This is what some people believe to be the point of life, to make life more meaningfull. To do this people work, play, and enjoy life, and others strive to do things to improve society in general. This is a very good phylosophy which will help us be kept on track towards civilisation even more in the future.

Last Modified 8/21/06 3:42 PM