![]() ![]() So that definitely means that these guys are speaking to each other in Spanish, even though Steinbeck's writing in English. Steinbeck uses "thou" to try to capture (in English) that difference in Spanish. In English, you used to say you to people in formal situations and thou to people in informal situations nowadays, everyone just uses you. In Spanish, you say usted to people in formal situations (like if you're talking to your boss or your king) and tĂș to people in informal situations (like if you're talking to your siblings or your friends). ![]() So what's up with all this weird language? Well, for one thing, Steinbeck was trying to capture a difference that exists in Spanish that we don't have in English anymore: the difference between formal and informal ways of addressing people. ![]() And it's not just vocabulary that makes you feel like you're in Back to the Future IV: it's the whole structure of the novel, which tries to make these simple, ordinary characters into holy, beautiful beings. ![]() It makes post-World War I Monterey seem like a weird, kind of exotic place. In Tortilla Flat, the characters bust out thees and thous like they're in the King James Bible or a Shakespeare play. ![]()
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