The Grapes of Wrath

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.