America in the 1930s was in the midst of the Great Depression
(1929–41), a period of severe economic downturn and high unemployment. The southern Great Plains region, particularly western Oklahoma
and the Texas panhandle, was hit at the same time by a devastating
drought. Most of the region’s residents were farmers who depended on
the land for their livelihood. Without rain, crops failed; without crops,
there were no roots in the ground to anchor the topsoil. Huge dust
storms formed on the prairies, at times so violent that the sun was
blocked and daytime turned to night. Dust covered everything inside
and out; it filled the noses, eyes, and mouths of people as well as animals,
many of whom died. Because of the dust storms, the region became
known as the Dust Bowl.
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) wrote several novels in the late 1930s
that focused on the lives of migrant workers, those who traveled from
place to place in search of work. The life of a migrant worker was hard
under the best of circumstances, but during the 1930s, it was simply a
matter of survival. Jobs were scarce, and those who left the Dust Bowl
for better prospects in California were treated with prejudice. Many
starved to death. The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, is the most famous of Steinbeck’s migrant worker novels.
Plot
The plot revolves around an ex-convict named Tom Joad, who returns to
his family’s Oklahoma farm in the late 1930s. He meets former preacher
Jim Casy along the way, and Casy accompanies Tom to his home. The
men find all the farms in the area, including Tom’s, deserted. An old
neighbor happens by and explains that most families have taken off for
California. Tom and Jim catch up with the Joad family, and together
they begin the journey west.
The travelers encounter hostility in California. The migrant worker
camps are overflowing with starving people. Tempers flare, and soon
landowners begin to worry that the workers will rise up against them.
When the workers get into an argument with a deputy sheriff over whether or not workers should organize into a union, Jim accidentally
knocks the sheriff unconscious and is arrested. The Joads move to a
government-controlled work camp.
Although conditions are better at that camp, the family still cannot
find steady work. The Joads move on and find work picking fruit. They
learn that the reason they are making good money is because they were
hired as strikebreakers, workers who take over the jobs of those who refuse to work until conditions and wages are improved. Tom runs into
Jim, who has been released from jail. Jim is now a labor organizer with
many enemies among the wealthy and powerful landowners. When Jim
is killed in front of Tom, Tom seeks revenge and kills a police officer. He
goes into hiding, but then takes over where Jim left off.
As the picking season ends, the rest of the Joad family suffers. There
is no work to be found for three months. A flood forces the family to seek
shelter in a barn, where they find a young boy kneeling over his father,
who is dying of starvation. The cycle of death and suffering continues.
Themes
Steinbeck’s woeful story depicts human suffering at the hands of fellow
humans. The powerful rely on violence and tyranny to keep the powerless lower classes down. Society is divided into those who have and those
who have not.
The theme of dignity also runs through the novel. Although the
Joads are treated like animals and experience terrible injustice, they refuse to be broken. They have suffered numerous losses, yet they do not
let hate make them hate. Jim Casy is Steinbeck’s most moral character; when he dies, Tom evolves into a man who, despite the wrongs that have
been done to him, will choose to fight for justice. He declares,
“Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there.
Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there.” Tom will use his
rage to help the downtrodden retain their dignity.
Another dominant theme of The Grapes of Wrath is the power of
family—both the Joads themselves and the larger collective family of migrant workers. As they left their homes for life on the road, “twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of
home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream.”
Every worker faced adversity to one degree or another, and to survive
each individual had to learn to embrace the other as family.
Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature as well as a Pulitzer
Prize for The Grapes of Wrath, which remains on the reading lists of
American high school and college English classes.