To a God Unknown

Although future Nobel laureate John Steinbeck’s third novel is considered one of his lesser works, this parable about the relationship between a man and the land he cultivates has layers of symbolic rich meaning and lyrical descriptions of the passing seasons. Published in 1933, To a God Unknown tries to explain the way faith forms and spreads, and what happens when new belief systems clash with more established ones. The short novella uses spare dialog and atmospheric evocations of farm life to create an experimental fusion of stark realism and fable.

Joseph Wayne has spent most of his childhood on his father’s Vermont ranch, and has always felt a special mystical connection to the land. The third of four brothers, Joseph cultivates this feeling and eventually decides to move to California in order to start his own homestead there, following the example of his father, John. John initially resists Joseph’s plan, but seeing that the young man is clearly called to the land almost as a vocation, John relents and lets him go. Soon after that, he dies.

Joseph sets out for California, which is a long and complex trip through the country. Along the way, one of the people Joseph meets is Old Juan, a man who urges him to complete his voyage and throw a fiesta to celebrate. In 1904, Joseph finds the perfect spot for his ranch in the Nuestra Senora valley near the Salinas River. One of the landmarks that seems convince Joseph that this is the right place is an enormous oak tree growing in the middle of the claim. As Joseph builds his house under the tree, he comes to believe that the spirit of his father is housed in it.



A Native American man named Juanito joins Joseph’s homestead as a vaquero – a cattle driver – and the two men grow close as they work side by side. There are tales that the land is plagued with periodic drought periods called the “dry years,” but Joseph is filled with an unshakeable optimism that his special link to the land will protect his homestead from this natural disaster. After all, he and Juanito have explored the land and found a moss-covered rock next to a spring in the middle of a forest glade – a place so filled with atmosphere they decide it must be sacred.

Joseph invites his brothers to join him in the valley – the land next to his ranch is still unclaimed and could be theirs. His older brothers are Burton, who is the oldest and most deeply committed to Christianity, and Thomas, who is misanthropic but has a tremendous affinity for animals. His younger brother is Benjy, who seems innocent but is actually a troublemaker, philanderer, and drunkard.

After his brothers make the trip to California, Joseph leaves the land in order to court and marry Elizabeth, a naïve but learned schoolteacher. When the newlywed couple return, Joseph discovers a distraught Juanito, who has stabbed Benjy to death for sleeping with Juanito’s wife Alice. It is clear that whatever the solution to the situation, the men must discuss it by the sacred mossy rock. There, Juanito asks Joseph to kill him in retribution, but Joseph would rather Juanito pretend the whole thing was an accident. Unable to overcome his guilt, Juanito leaves the ranch.



Elizabeth has trouble integrating into farm life, and relies on Rama, Thomas’s wife, for help. Soon, Rama assists when Elizabeth gives birth to Joseph’s son, John – a birth that coincides with a prosperous period on the farm.

Soon, however, Burton becomes concerned that Joseph’s connection to the land has spun out of control. Joseph has been talking to the giant oak tree, and sometimes he even offers small animal sacrifices to it as well. When confronted, Joseph admits that these rites feel appropriate, and then throws a huge New Year’s party where new pagan rituals are introduced to farm life. Scandalized, Burton leaves.

The oak tree dies, and Joseph and Thomas discover that Burton had girdled it (stripped off a piece of bark all the way around) in order to kill it. The next winter is dry, and everything on the farm begins to die, but Joseph refuses to believe that the dry years have returned.
Joseph clings more and more to his belief in the sacred moss rock, which he now believes is the heart of the land. He takes Elizabeth to see the rock. When she tries to overcome her fear of it by climbing on top of it, she slips and falls, killing herself instantly. Joseph is overwhelmed by the shock, and Rama sleeps with him to soothe his feelings. Joseph gives her baby John to raise as her own.



As the drought continues, Joseph and Thomas walk up the dry river bed to try to find a way to save the land. They meet a man whose pagan beliefs compel him to sacrifice an animal each evening as a way of worshipping the sun. Deeply moved, Joseph feels connected to this man and his beliefs – they seem to be on the same page with his own feelings about the land. Still, there is no help for the drought, and Thomas moves the ranch cattle to San Joaquin to try to save them.

Driven almost insane by the drought and its overturning of everything he has believed in, Joseph camps out by the mossy rock. He comes to believe that as long as the rock stays wet and alive, the land will eventually recover. Juanito returns and together with Joseph, they try to make the town priest, Father Angelo, pray for rain. The priest instead begs them to abandon their pagan ways and return to the church. It is clear from everything he is saying that he is the one who convinced Burton to kill the oak tree.

Joseph returns to the rock and realizes that the spring is out of water and the moss is dying. Suddenly, Joseph understands that he himself is the heart of the land, and that it is his blood that is needed to restore the rock. He slits his wrists. As he is dying, rain starts to fall.