The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, follows the story of migrant workers in California during the 1930s Dust Bowl, particularly through the eyes of the Joad family. When Tom Joad is paroled from prison, he returns home to find his family’s farm destroyed. Due to the Great Depression, changes in the agricultural industry, and bank foreclosures, they are now living with their uncle, John, with no options left. The family decides to pick up and move to California, after receiving a handbill advertising thousands of available agricultural jobs in the Golden State.
The journey across the country is far from easy. The Joads purchase the best car they can with their few funds, but it still experiences many problems. The grandmother and grandfather both die from the exhaustion of the trip and heartbreak of leaving their home. As they get closer to California, they start experiencing prejudice from locals against the newbies, who they rudely refer to as “Okies”. They encounter other travellers on the road back to Oklahoma, who could not find work and prefer to starve in a comfortable environment than the strange land of California. The family starts to get the first hint that life in California may not be as great as it seems.
The Joads are hit with a harsh reality upon reaching California. They travel from camp to camp, searching for the perfect balance of work and safety, but it is not easily found. In places with work, such as the peach picking camp, there are so many workers pleading for jobs that the owners are able to push the wages down to two and a half cents a day. In the government-owned Weedpatch Camp, conditions are wonderful. There is running water, Okie-run local authority, and federal protection. However, there is little work near the camp, and eventually the Joads must leave.
In addition to trying to avoid starvation, the Joad family must also contend with their son, Tom. Back home in Oklahoma, Tom was on parole for killing a man in a bar fight, and by leaving that state he broke the terms of his parole agreement. His short temper often leads to problems. He hits a local police officer threatening to burn down a Hooverville and even kills the man who murdered family friend Jim Casy.
Aside from being a well-written and gripping story, The Grapes of Wrath was also a call to action. Steinbeck wrote the novel with the intention of hitting the reader “below the belt”. A native Californian, he had watched The Grapes of Wrath play out in real life for thousands of migrant families. He hoped that this novel would draw national attention to the issue. In order to prevent critics from claiming that his work was inaccurate, Steinbeck did extensive research, even visiting the Arvin Federal Government Camp near Bakersfield.
The contemporary response to the novel was far from positive. Hatred came particularly from California, whose locals were portrayed as vicious and cruel. In fact, a contemporary review from The New York Times describes the state of affairs in California as similar to that of Nazi Germany. Naturally, many protests regarding the book occurred. The Associated Farmers of California deemed the book “a pack of lies” and “communist propaganda”. Several of the more successful farming communities even participated in book burnings. Kern County, California, where the Joads reside at the end of the novel, banned the book from the local library. Steinbeck was accused of being a socialist and a communist, but ironically, even Josef Stalin banned the book in the Soviet Union.
The book banning really speaks to the power behind this book. Steinbeck was one of the first people to truly reveal the strife and inhumanity of migrant life to the American public. California farmers realized this, and knew that their time in charge was coming to an end. They feared that migrants might be inspired by the likes of Tom Joad or Jim Casy and rise up in rebellion. This fear was so great that it caused grown adults to ban and burn books.
Unfortunately for the farmers of California, their efforts were for naught. The American people made the Grapes of Wrath a bestseller, and it eventually won the National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Millions of people became educated about the plight of the California migrant worker. While Grapes may not have solved the problem, it did encourage the American people to take action. Combined with the Second World War, migrant farming became less of an issue.
However, many of the messages in Grapes of Wrath still ring true today. The disparity between rich and poor continues to grow. And while the modern-day Joad family may not be travelling to pick cotton in California, perhaps they are working in a Bangladeshian clothing factory. Here in America, migrant workers still exist, although they are largely Latino. Grapes of Wrath represents our past and our present.
The book ends abruptly as spring rains threaten to flood the Joads camp. Daughter Rose of Sharon gives birth to a stillborn infant as the waterline creeps higher. Eventually, the family flees to a barn on higher ground. There, they find a man dying from starvation and his young son. To save the man’s life, Rose of Sharon offers him her breast milk for support. It is an abrupt ending, and the reader never finds out the fate of the Joad family. Of course, this reflects the never-ending effect of poverty. There is no happy ending for the Joads or the migrant workers in 1939. The ending calls for action to help these people live humanely.
Chilton, Martin. "The Grapes of Wrath: 10 Surprising Facts about John Steinbeck's Novel." The Telegraph. N.p., 14 Apr. 2014. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fbooknews%2F10755043%2FThe-Grapes-of-Wrath-10-surprising-facts-about-John-Steinbecks-novel.html>.
"The Author, On 'Grapes Of Wrath'" The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Aug. 1990. Web. 02 Dec. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/06/opinion/the-author-on-grapes-of-wrath.html>.
