“The one-eyed man watched them go, and then he went through the iron shed to his shack behind. It was dark inside. He felt his way to the mattress on the floor, and he stretched out and cried in his bed, and the cars whizzing by on the highway only strengthened the walls of his loneliness.”

American novelist and short story writer of the mid-20th century, Steinbeck is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel *The Grapes of Wrath*, which vividly captures the struggles of migrant workers during the Great Depression. His work often explores human resilience, social injustice, and the complexities of the American Dream, blending realism with poetic depth.