Analysis of Grapes Of Wrath Essay

John Steinbeck and The Dust Bowl

John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath is a novel that deals with a broad spectrum of issues and human conditions. Steinbeck deals with topics such as intolerance, labor relations, greed, isolation, poverty, and the human spirit. Even though the original book was published in 1939, the novel is still widely read and in many schools is required reading for English classes. Steinbeck opened the eyes of America with his portrait of human suffering and the working conditions in parts of this country. John Steinbeck wrote from firsthand experience and from what he had witnessed happening in the United States. (3)

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902. He had three sisters. John Steinbeck's father, John, was a county treasurer. His mother, Olive, was a teacher and Steinbeck acquired his love of books from her. Among his early favorites were Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Le Morte d'Arthur. Steinbeck attended and graduated from the local high school and worked on farms and ranches in the area. John Steinbeck enrolled at Stanford University beginning in 1920 as well as periodically through 1925, but did not receive a degree. Steinbeck said he had always planned to be a writer. Several of his early writings, poems and short stories, were published in university publications. Steinbeck moved to New York but after working there a little while as a laborer and reporter, Steinbeck returned to California. Upon his return to California, Steinbeck took odd jobs while beginning his writing career. He was a hood-carrier, a painter, the caretaker of an estate, a surveyor, and a fruit-picker. He also worked for the Spreckels Sugar Company and got a view of labor and their problems that found a way of appearing in his novels. (2) All of these experiences of Steinbecks helped to shape his view of the world and his future works.

John Steinbeck wrote a series of newspaper stories for the San Francisco News that Steinbeck used as the basis for his novel, The Grapes of Wrath. To obtain information for his work, Steinbeck visited the labor camps of rural California. John Steinbeck was able to see the living and working conditions of farm workers. John Steinbeck did not like the conditions and situations he saw in the labor camps he visited. These same situations found their way into The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck was able to present a very realistic view of labor camps that were based on these real life scenarios. (2)

Steinbeck also believed that banks were to blame for a great many of the foreclosures and hard times that happened around the country. (3) Steinbeck wrote. The Bank-or the Company-needs-wants-insists-must have-as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which has ensnared them. (4) As you can see, this type of thinking greatly influenced John Steinbecks point of view and his writings. Steinbeck was certain that banks and corporations were trying to take over and control the American Way of Life. John Steinbeck was convinced that banks would always be a source of a great many problems in America.

Poor agricultural practices and many years of drought appear to be the cause of the phenomenon known as the Dust Bowl. The Plains had been plowed and planted over and over again. During the years when there was enough rainfall, large crops were produced. But as the droughts of the early 1930s lasted longer, the farmers kept plowing and planting and nothing grew. Because of the continual plowing and planting the ground cover that held the soil in place was gone. The winds would blow across the fields raising clouds of dust. The sky would become dark, and even the best sealed homes would have a thick layer of dust everywhere.

The period of time known as The Dust Bowl was complicated by the occurrence of the Great Depression which began in 1929. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s lasted about the decade. The Dust Bowl affected the people of the Plains states, mainly the Southern Plains. The destruction of the Dust Bowl helped to extend the era of the Depression. These effects were felt worldwide. "Dust Bowl" was a saying used to describe the area of the nation affected by the destruction. The Dust Bowls devastation prompted people who had lost everything to pack up their belongings and being to migrate to other parts of the country. Steinbeck wrote in The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans,

homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land." (4)

The Dust Bowl migration was the largest mass movement of people in American history. By 1940, about 2.5 million people had moved from the Plains states and of this number, approximately 200,000 moved to California. (1) When they reached the California border, they did not receive a warm welcome. The local police stopped carloads of migrants coming into California. Undesirables were turned away by the police at the borders. John Steinbeck saw the type of reception that newcomers received when he visited the labor camps in rural California. Steinbeck dramatized this in The Grapes of Wrath, They were hungry, and they were fierce. And they had hoped to find a home, and they only found hatred. Okies-the owners hated them because the owners knew they were soft and the Okies were strong, that they were fed and the Okies were hungry; and perhaps the owners had heard from their grandfathers how easy it is to steal land from a soft man if you are fierce and hungry and armed. (4) John Steinbeck saw the inhumane way that at people were treated by the people of California. Once the migrants got through the entry barriers, the migrants found that their new life was almost as difficult as the one they had left behind. A lot of farms in California were owned by large companies and corporations. They were bigger than the farms in the plains, and the crops were like nothing that the migrants had ever seen before. Fields of wheat were replaced by crops of fruit, nuts and vegetables. Similar to the Joad family in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath", about 40% of migrant farmers wound up in the San Joaquin Valley, picking fruit and cotton. Life for migrant workers was hard. They were paid by the amount of fruit and cotton picked, with earnings ranging from seventy-five cents to $1.25 a day. Out of these low wages they had to payment rent on their leaky and rough shack that usually had only a dirt floor and no plumbing. Oftentimes the migrants had to buy their supplies from a company owned store that charged very high prices. (1) Steinbeck witnessed the payment of these low wages in the labor camps he visited. Steinbeck saw the living conditions of the families and how little they had. John Steinbeck saw destitute conditions and the means that migrants used in order to eke out some type of living for their families. Large number of migrants were camping out, desperate for work. This proved to be the basis for scenes such as that described in The Grapes of Wrath. "Maybe he needs two hundred men, so he talks to five hunderd, an' they tell other folks, an' when you get to the place, they's a thousan' men. This here fella says, "I'm payin' twenty cents an hour." An' maybe half a the men walk off. But they's still five hunderd that's so goddamn hungry they'll work for nothin' but biscuits. Well, this here fella's got a contract to pick them peaches or -- chop that cotton. You see now? The more fella's he can get, less he's gonna pay. An' he'll get a fella with kids if he can." (4)

As the number of roadside camps of migrants multiplied, the companies that owned the farms put pressure on the police to get rid of them. Gangs of residents would attack groups of migrants and would burn their shacks to the ground. Camps were built by the federal government in hopes that these new camps would help the migrants. Each camp housed 300 families on a temporary basis. The families lived in tents built on wooden platforms. The camps were self-governing communities, and families had to work for their room and board. (1) Steinbeck included the description of these camps in The Grapes of Wrath.

John Steinbeck was able to see the dark side of humanity as well as reactions to new situations and the adaptability of man. Californians were hostile and did not want anyone taking away their livelihoods. Californians were afraid of the outsiders and undesirables who they were certain were going to take their jobs, their homes, as well as their way of life. I enjoyed reading The Grapes of Wrath a great deal. The Grapes of Wrath is a dynamic, thought provoking commentary on humanity and the adaptability of the human race when faced with overwhelming barriers and obstacles. John Steinbecks work has an amazing impact upon people as he is still widely read worldwide. John Steinbeck passed away in New York City on December 20, 1968.2

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. "Dust Bowl," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2006

http://encarta.msn.com 1997-2011 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights

Reserved.

2. Newman, Gerald. A Students Guide To John Steinbeck. Berkeley Heights, NJ. Enslow Publishing Inc. 2004.

3. Schultz, Jeffrey D. Critical companion to John Steinbeck: A Literary Reference To His Life and Work. New York. Facts On File. 2005.

4. Steinbeck, John.The Grapes of Wrath. New York, NY. Penguin Publishers. 1939.