Part I: Introduction
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by american realist author, John Steinbeck in spring of 1939. The book is famous for winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the National Book Award. Steinbeck is also famous for winning the Nobel Prize in 1962 for his “realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” In his life he wrote a total of 27 books, which included 6 non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories, although Grapes of Wrath is considered his masterpiece and part of the classics of Western Literature.
The 1940 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Grapes of Wrath, could be described as a story that transcends the pages of a book. Set during the period of the Great Depression, it chronicles one family's quest to leave heartbreak behind and search for a better life.
The historical context of the time, as well as the author's own efforts to personally understand the story he was telling, were driving forces in the creation of this literary realism novel. Through his personal, firsthand experiences, and the very real conditions being endured during the Great Depression, we discover how the history and the author himself lend to the meaning of the novel's story when we analyze the context and the book’s subject matter. The time period depicted in the book spans what is known as The Great Depression which began around the economic crash of 1929 and continued until the beginning of World War II, when the industry started seeing slight upticks. But, in those approximately 10 years, there was a decrease in consumer spending, fewer investments, decreased manufacturing and industrial work which lead to increased rates of unemployment, and midway through the period of the Depression, upto 15 million americans had already lost their jobs and half of the United States banking industry had completely failed.
The Grapes of Wrath, for many, humanized the experiences being felt across the country, in a story that spanned job loss, hardship and the pursuit of the American dream. Depicted in the novel is the plight of American migrant workers, mirroring the problems of real Americans at the time. Not only did the Great Depression bring economic loss, but also agricultural. When the drought came, crops died and the dirt rose up into dust storms that blew across a portion of the country dubbed the 'Dust Bowl.' Like in the book, when the out-of-work farmers headed west to California, they found only farm country overcome with migrant workers. With work and food scarce, and migrants poorly treated by their new California neighbors, the farmers and their families lived – and died – in migrant camps named after President Herbert Hoover. “Hoovervilles” bore the name of the 31st President who shouldered much of the blame for the start of the Great Depression. Unfortunately, many people in the migrants camps failed to find work and many died of starvation.
Steinbeck's writing fully encompasses the struggles of the migrant worker population at the time and also speaks critically of the politics (and politicians) many believed created the problems to begin with. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck repeatedly points to the poor physical and economic conditions endured by the migrants, as well as social and political issues such as a class system dividing the 'haves' from the 'have nots.' He also addresses both the banking and labor industries as 'monsters' that can't be controlled.
The work of The Grapes of Wrath is one Steinbeck took seriously, and personally. His desire to get readers to experience the lives of migrants through the pages of his novel shines through loud and clear. That is likely due, in part, to Steinbeck's firsthand experiences while crafting the book.
Preparing for the book took Steinbeck on the physical and emotional journey of traveling with an Oklahoma family moving westward. He reviewed and sourced official reports from California's Arvin Migrant Camp director to expound on his story and provide realistic details of the conditions at the time. He experienced the devastation of migrant camps firsthand, which enraged him and spurred his desire to write.
The Grapes of Wrath presents a fictionalized account of real conditions experienced by workers during the Great Depression. Steinbeck's personal experiences interacting with migrant workers, as well as the political and historical conditions at the time, colored the context and the content of his well-known novel. Another author once said of Steinbeck's work that you could read about the history in a textbook, but Steinbeck's account allows you to live and breathe it.
Part II: Analysis and Reflection
Of all the injustices that are bestowed upon mankind, none are greater than the ones inflicted by our own species of apathy towards poverty and the hardships of our brothers. Steinbeck gives a view of human frailties and strengths from many different perspectives in “The Grapes of Wrath.” This book demonstrates how people can overcome destitution, team up to find solutions, and provide protection and security in times of trouble. Steinbeck introduces people who are hardworking and honest, that reach out selflessly with compassion towards others. However, not everyone reacts to austerity and oppression in the same way. Large groups of people can cause suspicion to outsiders. Ignorant people can be paralyzed by an incomprehensible fear of the unknown, and react with cruelty, prejudice, and hatred toward newcomers that are different from them. This irrational behavior can lead to unnecessary violence and driving others to the ground. Depicted in this book is capitalism at its worst; landowners, corporations, and government officials exploit the poor and abuse the downtrodden. In this essay, I analyze the concepts of humanity and solidarity embedded into Steinbeck’s text.
The Grapes of Wrath is an American allegory of human suffering and human unity that takes place in a dark period of the history of the nation of the United States, brought on by the Dust Bowl migration from Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, during the 1930s and the depression. Tom Joad and his family are forced from their farm in the Depression-era Oklahoma Dust Bowl and set out for California along with thousands of others in search of jobs, land, and hope for a brighter future.
People experienced this tragedy in different ways. In the book, we get to see the landowner who had to remove the families was torn in turmoil; Steinbeck writes, “Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.” Others found ways to be apathetic cowards, allowing the blame to fall on “The Bank—or the Company,” which in turn, “…provided a refuge from thought and from feeling.” (31) we can see how in The Grapes of Wrath, capitalism costs the Joads their farm when they are unable to produce crops due to drought. They cannot pay the bank what they owe for their land nor the landlords what they owe for the house and property they lease. Steinbeck sharply criticized the capitalist economic system which drove farmers to homelessness and extreme poverty. He is also critical of this financial system because it perpetuates a vicious cycle that neither landowner or tenant can escape, as we can see in the quote above. In connection to humanity, we can see that Steinbeck uses capitalism as a trap against humanity and all of its functions. If farmers do not earn payment for their crops, then they cannot pay their leases, and if rents are not paid, owners are unable to pay what they owe the banks or sustain their own economic situations. The expulsion of families from their homes evokes different emotions from different people, but no one escapes the wrath of this tragic event. In this short description, many human emotions are presented: anger, cruelty, indifference, apathy, and compassion.
Moreover, Steinbeck puts class discrimination on display in The Grapes of Wrath, focusing on the economic situation of the migrant people as compared to that of the landowners. Several intercalary chapters explain the fear that the California landowners feel over the influx of workers. Steinbeck explores the American desire for land in Chapter 19, describing how “a horde of tattered feverish Americans” took the land from Mexicans and “guarded with guns the land they had stolen” (231). As small farmers lost their land to larger operations and owners grew scarcer, workers were imported, abused, and forced to work on credit, sometimes even owing money to their employer. This cycle gets interrupted when people from the Dust Bowl begin to move west looking for work. The landowning capitalists fear these migrants, realizing from their own histories that it is “easy to steal land from a soft man if you are fierce and hungry and armed” (233). Tensions also increase among the merchant class, who dislike the workers because they cannot gain any capital from them. The general feeling toward the migrants begins to take on racial undertones: “Got to keep ‘em in line or Christ only knows what they’ll do! Why, Jesus, they’re as dangerous as ni**ers in the South! If they ever get together there ain’t nothin’ that’ll stop ‘em” (236). “Okie” becomes a derogatory term used to describe those who might challenge the prosperous farmers and their agricultural interests.
Another big motif in Steinbeck’s novel is man’s own inhumanity to man. Steinbeck consistently and woefully points to the fact that the migrants’ great suffering is caused not by bad weather or mere misfortune but by their fellow human beings. Historical, social, and economic circumstances separate people into rich and poor, landowner and tenant, and the people in the dominant roles struggle viciously to preserve their positions. In his brief history of California in Chapter 19, Steinbeck portrays the state as the product of land-hungry squatters who took the land from Mexicans and, by working it and making it produce, rendered it their own. Now, generations later, the California landowners see this historical example as a threat, since they believe that the influx of migrant farmers might cause history to repeat itself. In order to protect themselves from such danger, the landowners create a system in which the migrants are treated like animals, shuffled from one filthy roadside camp to the next, denied livable wages, and forced to turn against their brethren simply to survive. The novel draws a simple line through the population—one that divides the privileged from the poor—and identifies that division as the primary source of evil and suffering in the world.
Not only do we see sadness and disappointment at the hands of humans but we also see how Steinbeck illustrates the importance of solidarity among citizens in contrast to competition, which is represented by the interests of big banks and wealthy landowners. The Joad family, particularly Tom, learn the importance of community and unity by working with other families in similar situations. When the Joads arrive at the Weedpatch government camp in California, Steinbeck illustrates the effectiveness of self-sufficiency and unity through the democratic nature and efficiency of the camp. Outside of the peach farm, Tom runs into Jim Casy, who is advocating for the workers striking against the farm's owners. Unfortunately, Jim Casy is killed, and Tom retaliates by killing his murderer. Tom is then forced to flee the camp and spends time in the wilderness contemplating Casy's philosophy of unity, community, and a universal human spirit. In chapter 28, Tom elaborates on Casy's philosophy, which reflects Steinbeck's overall message of solidarity, by telling his mother, "Says one time he [Jim Casy] went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an' he foun' he didn' have no soul that was his'n. Says he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain't no good, 'cause his little piece of a soul wasn't no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was whole." (Steinbeck, 288) Tom goes on to share part of Casy's sermon with his mother by saying, "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lif' up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up." (288). Casy's concept that two is better than one illustrates the overall theme of unity, community, and comradery throughout the novel, which is reflected in Rose of Sharon's benevolent action of breastfeeding a starving man during a torrential downpour.
According to Steinbeck, many of the evils that plague the Joad family and the migrants stem from selfishness. Simple self-interest motivates the landowners and businessmen to sustain a system that sinks thousands of families into poverty. In contrast to and in conflict with this policy of selfishness stands the migrants’ behavior toward one another. Aware that their livelihood and survival depend upon their devotion to the collective good, the migrants unite—sharing their dreams as well as their burdens—in order to survive. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck constantly emphasizes self-interest and altruism as equal and opposite powers, evenly matched in their conflict with each other. In Chapters 13 and 15, for example, Steinbeck presents both greed and generosity as self-perpetuating, following cyclical dynamics. In Chapter 13, we learn that corporate gas companies have preyed upon the gas station attendant that the Joads meet. The attendant, in turn, insults the Joads and hesitates to help them. Then, after a brief expository chapter, the Joads immediately happen upon an instance of kindness as similarly self-propagating: Mae, a waitress, sells bread and sweets to a man and his sons for drastically reduced prices. Some truckers at the coffee shop see this interchange and leave Mae an extra-large tip.
All things considered, we are left to ponder our own sensibility. In a world full of hurt, some people will stand out as the oppressors, while others will be saviors. Steinbeck points out the different weaknesses and strengths of people. It is for each individual to decide how they will react to the challenges set forth in this time on earth and which path they will follow. Will it be a path of humility, compassion, and sacrifice for each other? Or will life spent on earth be selfish, hurtful, and prideful without regard for fellow man. “‘Maybe,’ I figgered, ‘maybe it’s all men an’ all women we love; maybe that’s the Holy Sperit-the human sperit-the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’ Now I sat there thinkin’ it, an’ all of a suddent-I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it.”