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Historical Analysis of The Grapes of Wrath
Introduction
The paper attempts to analyze the relevance of the book, “The Grapes of Wrath to its historical context and the accurateness of the novel to the historical events. The paper also gives a critical analysis of the book that made it to be banned in some places and whether it expressed the social, economic and political matters during that period.
John Steinbeck was not the inventor of the term Okies, nor was the novel, “The Grapes of Wrath,” reflect the historical context of the Californian immigrants in 1939. The novel did not present their story for the first time; instead, Steinbeck explored the American history during the Great Depression and the Great Crash. Steinbeck describes the historic American movement of pioneers and homesteaders crossing the great plain in a term referred as the Dust Bowl migration. The mirror text of the novel captures many contemporary readers’ attentions to the California’s agricultural production upon a migrant labor class. For instance, it might be interesting to focus on the problem of the human condition that Steinbeck apparently plotted in the novel. The fundamental concerns of the white Midwestern migrants to the author was that the problem of the human condition was shaped by social and human contingencies. Steinbeck adeptness at elevating the demoralized migrants to the epochal level the history makers relied on the general account that, nature did not determine history and history did not supersede nature. The approach brought rise to much criticism because of Steinbeck’s advocacy for communism in light of American capitalist society. Nevertheless, this illuminating approach mapped out Steinbeck primary thesis, “that you cannot understand what was happening in California, if you did not know what was occurring outside” (Bloom 122).
The novel shows the wrenching story of the Oklahoma farmers in California who were dispossessed of their land and forced to live as migrants during the great depression. The author describes the exploitation of Joad’s family by the ruthless agricultural economic system. For example, the agricultural workers in California received low wages, had poor living conditions, had no job security. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) said that there was a tendency by the agricultural capitalists to create barriers and prevent farm workers from acquiring their land (Boyer et al., 127).
It is also evident that by 1930s, the trek of Oklahoma and Arkanas’ farmers were immortalized by Steinbeck on their combative mood about their layoffs and wage cut–off in 1939. Campbel explains that the nation’s farms changed hands between 1930 and 1933 as community farms were put on penny auction by and sold to the migrants and the residents were displaced. As a result, there was a violent strike by cotton farmers which broke out in 1935, and the National Relations Labor Act was enacted to address the labor problems (Campbel 260). The historical Bowl Dust migration into California is accurately reflected by the book. For instance, the book describes the troubles on the farms, business communities and the city treasuries that was the center of politics during the FDR government. For instance, in response to the stock-market crash and the great depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed the New Deal to address the plight of sharecroppers and migrants in 1935. The new deal championed fundamental reforms such as the migrants social security and the workers’ rights to ownership of land (Boyer et al., 761).
Although the book reflected the lives of migrant workers during the depression period, Americans embraced, and others scorned the book. For instance, the book was banned in some areas because people accused Steinbeck for being a socialist and for fighting for communist beliefs. The book sent America in a state of frenzy when the author attacked the capitalist society setting of America and believed that people should share the wealth with friends, families and as a whole community. Moreover, the book was banned in Germany in 1942-43 on the grounds of inflammatory and widespread censorship of the Agricultural Council of California. Despite his efficacy on supporting his local community in California, Steinbeck novel was also denounced scandalous and a distortion of the truth. For example, Steinbeck included sexual innuendoes and graphic detailed scatological references that were offensive to the readers. The book portrayed a negative image of the Californians who were considerable for banning in schools and libraries (Railsback and Meye 129).
Other negative reviews that emerged that the book portrayed a thinly disguised propaganda about the social awareness outruns. For example, the book lacked organization of the political and social events during that period and was unconsciously out of the length to its substance. It promoted communist propaganda in a writing that epitomized the unconceivable sentimentality of the American realism. In addition, Steinbeck’s book has been largely criticized for the intercalary chapters which obscured the story with a moral, and was referred as a lie or a black twisted propaganda. For example, folks brought up in the Oklahoma Christian culture were upset by the vulgar language and how the book prejudiced them. The critiques argue that the book was a racial epithet and that Steinbeck did not study Oklahoma closely. Many readers misconceived that Sallisaw was in the Dust Bowl, and large corporations were responsible for taking over the farm land. However, the book fails to show that Oklahoma farmers came from different parts of the United States. Furthermore, the California grows and businessmen had been shown as negligent and inhuman to the workers. In response, the businessmen protested against the accusation and called for its censorship (Railsback and Meye 133).
Although the book received a lot of criticism and appraisal for its narrative expression, the book drew portrait of the American political implications and insights into the dogma of capitalism. The book gives the perspectives of the political reality at the time. For instance, there was a major social protest on labor movements in 1935 that spread in many countries. There was a formation of labor unions that the book uses to show transmission of values and ideas in the communist movement that was happening in California.
Conclusion
The novels unusual structure of the ruthless system of the agricultural economics in America in 1939 presents the historical and social context that led to the present American capitalist system. Despite the grueling problems, Steinbeck developed the plot by emphasizing unity, selflessness as the main virtues that people can use to survive. Taking the writer thesis to the post-modern conclusion, the author wanted us to contemplate with a critical eye, the social and political order so that we can achieve what he described as the “true man-self.”
Works Cited
Campbell, Ballard C. Disasters, Accidents, and Crises in American History: A Reference Guide
to the Nation’s Most Catastrophic Events. New York, NY: Infobase Publishing, 2008. Print.
Bloom, Harold. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. New York, NY: Chelsea House
Publishers, 2007. Print. Top of Form
Boyer, Paul, Clifford Clark, Karen Halttunen, Joseph Kett and Neal Salisbury. The Enduring
Vision, Volume II: Since 1865. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
Railsback, Brian E., and Michael J. Meye. A John Steinbeck Encyclopedia. Westport:
Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Print.
