The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck

In “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck describes the difficulties that the laborers encountered before and after moving to California in search of a better life. Published in 1939, “The Grapes of Wrath” centers around an Oklahoma family that are expelled from their farm and hence journey on to California in search of a better life. However, the journey to California across Highway 66 is characterized by despair, pain, anguish, and uncertainty because California did not turn out to be the promised land that they expected. In “The Grapes of Wrath” the Joad family began their journey amidst dust storms, drought and a stagnant economy that was driven by greedy corporations. With the Joad family as the focal point of Steinbeck’s discussion, this paper strives to use various themes such as class conflict and worker exploitation in “The Grapes of Wrath” to create a better understanding and analysis of the struggles of The Great Depression Period.

Furthermore, in “The Grapes of Wrath” one of the most dominant themes is that of people’s inhumanity to fellow human beings. Steinbeck decides to push the limits of the extremities and the harsh conditions in the novel which ultimately results to chaos and confusion (Steinbeck 300). The inhuman nature of human beings towards fellow human beings often manifests itself when people become desperate and hopeless.  The novel commences with the release of Tom Joad who had been incarcerated for four years after murdering a man. It is apparent that Tom lost all forms of compassion to the extent of murdering a fellow human being. The novel equally rotates around the misfortunes and hardships that the immigrants encounter during the period of economic hardship (Steinbeck 270). It is equally apparent that all the hardships and difficulties that the immigrants encounter are not merely as a result of the adversities of weather but are instigated by their fellow human beings.

In this novel, the historic social and economic structures separate the people into classes which include the landowners and the tenants. During the hard times, the landowners struggle viciously to make sure that they retain their land at the expense of the peasant tenants. Steinbeck equates the landowners to scavengers as he states that, they took the land that they occupied from the Mexicans and made it their own through working it (Bloom 165). The landowners in California, for instance, are comparable to savages as they are harsh and inhuman to the influx of immigrants into their region with the belief that history might repeat itself and, thereby, rendered the immigrants as an imminent threat. Out of malice, the landowners later devised a plan that further frustrates the immigrants by shoving them from one filthy camp to another while attaining a minimal wage. Bloom (112) states that out of pressure and the desire to survive, the immigrants are forced to feast on one another as in the case of Casy and the police officers. It is through the malice that the immigrants develop towards one another that evil springs. It is, therefore, difficult for the immigrants to completely pull themselves out of the difficult conditions and hence end up wading in the vicious cycle of poverty.

Another dominant theme in “The Grapes of Wrath” is the commonality of experiences. Through the Joad family, Steinbeck managed to highlight and capture the hardships that the other families traveling west went through. At the beginning of the novel, the author highlights a historical context that generalizes the commonality of experiences that the migrant families traveling west went through. The structures and planning of the novel itself echo the differences in the experiences that the migrant families encountered on their way to the west (Steinbeck 220). The Joad’s, for instance, meet the Wilsons on their way to the west and hence, they journey together and share their past experiences as well as their fears of the status quo in California. Additionally, on Route 66 in the Arizona desert, the author states that there were many trucks of immigrants migrating to the west in search for better opportunities. Most of the chapters in the novel deal with the experiences of the Joad’s while some chapter’s deal with the general experiences of the immigrants heading to the west (Steinbeck 400).

Through the chapters the capture and discuss the broader perspectives of immigration and the constant economic struggle that the commonality of experiences emerges. Through the case of the Joad’s and the Wilson’s, the author manages to highlight the commonality of experiences such as suffering, hopelessness and even death at the height of adversities and suffering. The deviant characters in the novel such as Tom and Casy further reinforce the theme of the commonality of the experiences that the immigrants went through while at the brink of starvation, and hopelessness (Barndt 56). The definitive aspect of the commonality of the experiences emanates from the encounters that the Joad’s had amongst themselves and with different other people while on their way to California. The commonality of the experiences that the different families had equally manifested itself in the way through which the families separated and disintegrated during the Great Depression period (Barndt72). The author further asserts that most of the families and individuals who went through the Great Depression period often found solace and comfort from their shared experiences which further played a key role in giving them the strength to move forward and tackle the adversities that threatened to engulf and wipe them out.

The third dominant theme that Steinbeck uses is the theme of corporate greed and economic exploitation. The theme of corporate greed manifests itself in every aspect of the novel from the beginning to the end. The title of the book itself is directly connected to this theme as it implies that there is a higher power acting on the poor and hence oppresses them to make high-profit margins at all costs (Barndt 47). The peasant and the suffering working class that is depicted in the novel, calls for a higher power to come to their rescue and restore the conditions that were available before the commencement of the great depression (Barndt 44). The wealthy, on the other hand, have lost their humanity and hence greed has taken over them. The wealthy landowners perceive everything in terms of economic gains and hence push the working class to the limits as long as they made profits.

The theme of corporate greed and economic exploitation is evident in the context of the experiences of the Joad’s and with reference to the general narrative that is used in the various chapters across the novel (Bloom 97). It was the landowners that subjected the families such as that of the Joad’s into abject misery by exploiting them. The migrant families were first subjected to harsh working conditions and after being drained of their energy and resources, the landowner corporations decided to evict them and flush them out of their premises. The actions of the corporations are deliberate as they and up paying the migrant families meager income which further prompts them to work even harder to satisfy their need and maintain their seemingly difficult lifestyles (Bloom 82). The harsh working conditions make the migrants grow bitter and resentful of the corporations and the authorities and landowners.

Although some migrants who survive the treacherous journey to California, their lives worsen each day due to the presence of mean landowners who treasure materialistic possessions over human lives (Steinbeck 312). The landowners of California for instance continually increase their profit margins in their lands cultivated by the migrant farmers and hence render them obsolete. Although most of the migrant farmers gave up their farms, the few that continued cultivating did not do so for profit gains but with the intention of providing for their families. The economic system in this context is skewed as farmers were often forced to exchange their efforts and physical energy for food and sustainability as opposed to payments. The landowners during the great depression era only strived to pay the peasant farmers and labors enough to give them the energy to move on as opposed to satisfying their needs (Bloom 59). Additionally, the landowners were equally merciful as they preferred to destroy the crops as opposed to selling them to the peasant farmers at a lower price.

Through the theme of attitude towards land use and environmentalism, Steinbeck assigns the characters a sense of self-worth and self-recognition. Steinbeck (500) affirms that, the land that the peasant farmers work and till in the novel is their main source of identity that grants them recognition and character. However, when the characters in the novel such as the Joad’s lost their land, they equally lost their identity. In Steinbeck’s depiction, the land has a soul that is equivalent to that of human beings and hence when one lost their land they lost their soul with it. Steinbeck’s allegations are evident across the novel. At the beginning of the novel, for instance, Tom was away from his land and hence earned the title of a convict while in prison (Steinbeck 502). On the other hand, The Joad’s, the Wilson’s and the other immigrants that journeyed to the west lost their respective identities of farmers and residents of their respective states to that of squatters and migrants. Through tilling and working the land, the farmers obtain a form of deeper connection with their parcels of land. However, upon ejection, they completely lost their understanding and appreciation of their land. The author further insinuates that the tractors that replaced the role of the farmers in their land hence played a major role in further disconnecting them with nature and their self-worth (Bloom 39). In a different perspective, the farmers obtained their independence through working and connecting with their land. The loss of their land to the landowners such as the corporation is, therefore, equivalent to the loss of their independence.

In the “Grapes of wrath,” industrialization is equally a dominant theme across the novel. The landowners preferred the tractors to the farmers as the tractors were much more efficient and did not need to be treated with dignity as compared to the farmers. Steinbeck explains that due to industrialization that occurred in the companies and the landowners acquired both vertical and horizontal integration patterns (Barndt 76). As a result of the industrialization, farmers were stripped of their livelihoods, identities, and hope and hence ended up being irrelevant in the labor workforce. Industrialization equally granted the landowners and corporations much more power and greed that made them increase their profit margins at the expense of the health and lives of the peasant farmers that tilled and worked the land (Barndt 34). Industrialization in the context of the novel is what led to the transformation of the previous agricultural based lifestyles to the new lifestyle which entailed providing labor for the landowners. Additionally, the settlers were hurdled in filthy informal settlements as opposed to the luxurious homesteads that they were accustomed to in their previous land.

The theme of industrialization in the “Grapes of wrath” did not only manifest itself in the lives of the farms where the migrants worked. Industrialization revolutionized the entire lifestyle and workforce of the migrants. People’s perception of life changed (Steinbeck 54). Just as in the case where mechanization removed all forms of compassion in the farming process, industrialization changed the attitude and perceptions of the migrants. Exposed to the new harsh conditions and an unforgiving terrain, most people became deviant and sought for alternative ways of earning income. Social evils such as violence and murder were on the rise due to the constant struggle for survival that further pushed the migrants to fend for themselves and their families (Steinbeck 56). Industrialization, therefore, removed the human nature of the migrants and instead turned people cold and ruthless in their pursuit for a better life.

With the Joad family as the focal point of Steinbeck’s discussion, this paper strives to use various themes such as class conflict and worker exploitation in “The Grapes of Wrath” to create a better understanding and analysis of the struggles of The Great Depression Period. In “The Grapes of Wrath” one of the most dominant themes is that of people’s inhumanity to fellow human beings. Both the landowners and the migrants developed inhuman tendencies towards each other due to the exposure of the extremities of the great depression. Another dominant theme in “The Grapes of Wrath” is the commonality of experiences. There is a lot of commonalities of experiences as most of the migrants faced similar circumstances of hardships, pain, anguish and hopelessness in their journey west. The third dominant theme that Steinbeck uses is the theme of corporate greed and economic exploitation. This theme is manifested in the way through which, the wealthy landowners perceive everything in terms of economic gains and hence push the working class to the limits as long as they made profits. Through the theme of attitude towards land use and environmentalism, Steinbeck assigns the characters a sense of self-worth and self-recognition. When the farmers were evicted from their farms by the landowners they lost their livelihoods and self-worth. In the “Grapes of wrath,” industrialization is equally a dominant theme across the novel. Steinbeck states that Industrialization, therefore, removed the human nature of the migrants and instead turned people cold and ruthless in their pursuit for a better life. Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is truly a depiction of the painful struggle, anguish, and hopelessness that revolutionized the lifestyle of the Americans in the period of the Great Depression.

Works cited

Barndt, Susan M. W. The American Road Trip and American Political Thought. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2018.

Bloom, Harold. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Chelsea, 2009.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Classic, 2006.