A comparative analysis of “In the Dubious Battle” and ”Bad Indians“

Centering Indigenous studies in modern sociology is a difficult nut to crack at best. Native studies, in general, face particular opposition from Western academia and its politics of inquiry and information. Furthermore, Indigenous science is often regarded as obsolete in the academic construction of knowledge. Deborah Miranda writes her tribal memoir, Bad Indians, with this history in mind. On the other hand, John Steinbeck’s In the Dubious Fight is a historical depiction of the difficulties and misery that many Americans experienced during the 1930s. It is an emblem of the “Dirty Thirties” which were characterized by economic depression, catastrophe, hopelessness, and hardship that came along with the Great Depression. In this article, the two works will be comparatively analysed to establish their similarities and differences.

First and foremost; the significant difference between the two is simple; unlike In the Dubious Battle, Bad Indians is not a classic novel as we know them to be. It is a memoir whose goal is to capture and contain memories (Miranda). Bad Indians is not told from the lenses of fictitious characters rather through a collection of oral histories, tales, anthropological recordings, newspaper clippings, and photos. The goal of the memoir is to re-tell and recover truths – gaps and unclear blurred moments notwithstanding.

Also, there exists a huge difference in the writing style of both Bad Indians and in in the Dubious Battle. In in the Dubious Battle, the work is majorly carried by dialogue (Steinbeck). The writing is a reflection of the speech patterns and personality of the workers Steinbeck is reluctant not to interfere with the ideas or language. However, occasionally, when circumstances and character permits, he lets loose his poetic self. Here is an illustration:

”The moment he stopped talking a turbulence broke out. Shouting and laughing, the men eddied. They seemed filled with a terrible joy, a bloody, lustful joy. Their laughter was heavy.” (104)

Another point of departure between the two works is the background setting and historical span that they seek to address. In the Dubious Battle is loosely founded on historical events from cotton and peach strikes in California in 1933, notably the Pixley Cotton strike that took place in California. In contrast, Miranda’s extensive research in the Bad Indians spans the late eighteenth century to the modern world, examining the structures of settler-colonialism and their on-going impact.

Bad Indians is concerned about the human story of California’s indigenous people. It is a narrative that shows California as a golden land that has been distorted and obscured by false stories about ‘civilisation’ and celebrations of Christian missionaries. It seeks to extensively explore the origin, history of California and the impact that missionisation has brought about to the city.

On the other hand, In the Dubious Battle, the author seeks to illustrate California in a more elevated plane of intellectualism. California is presented as a battleground for power. It is about the classic power struggle between the well-organized, large bank-account-wielding business owners and impoverished workers.

For instance, Jim tries to convince Dan with the possibility of a strike. However, Dan’s experience of organized labour advocacy is amateurish.

”I joined unions,“ he said. ”We’d elect a president and first thing we knew, he’d be kissing the ass of the superintendent, and then he’d sell us out. We’d pay dues and the treasurer run out on us. I don’t know. Maybe young squirts like you can figure something out.“ (52)

Both in the Dubious Battle and Bad Indians outline an internal struggle of its characters trying their best to undo the status quo that has perpetrated class inequality. They are both a decolonizing project, each in its right. For example, in the Dubious Battle, the apple-pickers trust that they will be freed from the chains of oppression if they fight the exploiters through combined efforts. Jim’s belief is that in the deadline that is imposed by the system, the only way to get liberated is undoubted to find means and ways to put a curb on the system.

”They were quiet, and they were working, but in the back of every mind there was conviction that sooner or later they would win their way out of the system they hated“ (31)

Likewise, in the Bad Indian, Miranda reconstructs the past stories that embody resistance and survival. Through such stories, Indigenous peoples challenge and disrupt the violent narratives of colonialism. They seek to undermine narratives that define, name and stereotype Native Peoples within structures of dominant power while concurrently rendering them invisible.

”Culture is ultimately lost when we stop telling the stories of who we are, where we have been, how we arrived here, what we once knew, what we wish we knew; when we stop our retelling of the past, our imagining of the future, and the long, long task of inventing an identity every second of our lives.” (14)

Another major similarity is to be found in the themes that both authors seek to promote. In the Dubious Battle, the novel’s dark ironies and cynical portrayal of patriotism, capitalism, and vigilante violence put into question various traditional American values. Furthermore, it suggests that there exists a fundamentally wrong approach to America’s economic system that oppresses and starves its labour.

For example, In the Dubious Battle, Jim Nolan the main protagonist has lost his parents and sisters. Regardless of the preceding, Jim joins the strike and offers leadership to it. It is a strike that aims to elevate the people from suffering to the realms of luxury. For example, the physical violence that was sustained by the father of Jim reveals the littleness of many humans. Lives of individuals do not matter in the harsh world.

”[...] My whole family has been ruined by this system. My old man, my father, was slugged so much in labor trouble that he went punch-drunk. He got an idea that he’d like to dynamite a slaughter-house where he used to work. Well, he caught a charge of buckshot in the chest from a riot gun.“ (6)

Similarly, in Bad Indians, as Miranda leaps forward in time from the missionisation of her family lineage, like themes of not only oppression and violence but also abandonment and loss carry through to her stories. Miranda draws out the linkage between the violence of the missions of California, the violence meted by her family and her rape. Moreover, through the study of those Indians enslaved in the California mission projects, she reveals the interlocking impacts of patriarchy, historical trauma, and internalized oppression.

Regardless of the preliminary critical analysis, the happy ends of their novels show that Steinbeck and Miranda and their characters are confident of a day coming when humanity will win over the malignity of the oppressive few that are privileged. Thus it appears that death of Indians in the Bad Indians and Jim’s death in the Dubious Battle are symbolic since they announce that the masses are satisfied in their struggle.

Though each narrative was originated and narrated in the distinctively different context, they possessed a unique tempt in describing the very definition of American Dream. It is the reinvention of this dream as known and understood in the contemporary and post-modern society.

Works Cited

Miranda, Deborah A. Bad Indians: A Tribal memoir. Heyday, 2013.

Steinbeck, John. In dubious battle. Penguin, 2006.