A major drought, over-cultivation, and a country suffering from one of the greatest depressions in history are all it took to displace hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners and send them, and everything they had, out west. The Dust Bowl ruined crops all across the Great Plains region, crops that people depended on for survival. When no food could be grown and no money could be made, entire families, sometimes up to 8 people or more, packed up everything they had and began the journey to California, where it was rumored that jobs were in full supply. Without even closing the door behind them in some cases, these families left farms that had been with them for generations, only to end up in a foreign place where they were neither welcomed nor needed in great quantity. This would cause immense problems for their futures. It is these problems that author John Steinbeck spent a great deal of his time studying and documenting so that Americans could better understand the plight of these migrant farmers, otherwise known as "Okies." From touring many of these "Hoovervilles" and "Little Oklahomas" (pg. v) Steinbeck was given a firsthand look at the issues and hardships these migrant workers faced on a daily basis. With the help of Tom Collins, manager of a federal migrant labor camp, Steinbeck began a "personal and literary journey" (pg. v), revealing to the world the painful truth of these "Okies" in his book Harvest Gypsies.
They arrived in beat-up, run down vehicles; after traveling thousands of miles into California, often losing children and older family members along the way (pg 22), they arrived with dreams of a brighter future, one with the hope of land for their own and jobs to support their loved ones. The scene they came up...
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...however, feels that to solve the plight of the Okies, land should be set aside for them to start their own small farms, since farming is all they know. He also suggests that local committees set wages and labor needs before the harvests to protect the rights of the workers and prevent them from being extorted (Pgs 58-59). While Steinbeck’s ideas made sense and had good intent, the grim reality still remained that the corporations controlled the agriculture industry and that they were going to save every nickel and dime they could, even if it meant a lower standard of living for the Okie. Today, we have unions that attempt to prevent things like this from happening again, but the plight of illegal immigrants demonstrates that the reality of this country’s need for cheap labor remains.
Work Cited
Steinbeck, John. The Harvest Gypsies, Heyday (July 1, 2002)
In the 1930s, America’s Great Plains experienced a disastrous drought causing thousands of people to migrate west. As their land was devastated by the Dust Bowl, deprived farmers were left with few options but to leave. The Grapes of Wrath depicts the journey of the Joads, an Oklahoma based family which decides to move to California in search of better conditions. Coming together as thirteen people at the start, the Joads will undertake what represents both a challenge and their only hope. Among them are only four women embodying every ages: the Grandma, the Mother and her two daughters, the pregnant Rose of Sharon and the young Ruthie. Appearing in Chapter Eight the mother, who is referred to as “Ma”, holds a decisive role in Steinbeck’s novel. She is, along with her son Tom (the main character of the book), present from the early stage of the story until its very end. We will attempt to trace back her emotional journey (I) as well as to analyze its universal aspects and to deliver an overall impression on the book (II).
“A mother knows what her child has gone through, even if she didn’t see it herself” Pramoedya Ananta Toer. The relationship between a mother and her child is said to be the strongest bond that two people can have. I asked my mother what it was like to give birth to another human being and she said that “Having the opportunity and privilege to bring another human into this world is the highest honor and gift a person can do” Michele Dieterich. In the book,The Grapes of Wrath, Ma Joad acts as the maternal character throughout the book and relates to the theme of families stick together.
Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur, a Frenchman living in America, wrote many letters to Europeans telling them of the great opportunities for immigrants to America and its generous, welcoming, paternal government. However, a study of the farm workers ' experiences in America does not always paint a rosy picture. In particular, John Steinbeck and Cesar Chavez portrayed the dire circumstances of farm workers during the Great Depression (1930 's) and the 1960 's. Today my interview with a farm worker shows that farm workers today still face injustices.
John Steinbeck is a brilliant storyteller capable of crafting such vibrant and captivating literary works that one can effortlessly exit their own life and enter another. John Steinbeck has a passion for divulging the flaws of human nature and he is not afraid to write about the raw and tragic misfortune that plagued the lives of people like the Okies in the Grapes of Wrath and residents of Cannery Row. He was also a brilliant commentator who contributed brilliant opinions on the political and social systems in our world. In heart wrenching words he tells us the story of peoples lives, which were full of love, corruption, faith and growth. However in the novels of Cannery Row and The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck specifically attempts to convey the thematic elements of socialism, survival and the role of women to blatantly present the lifestyle of down trodden migrant workers and the diverse ecosystem of prostitutes, marine biologists, store owners and drunks in a way that is unapologetic and mentally stimulating.
Through his use of imagery, phrases like “did not try anymore” and words like hard, crust, and pale paints a picture of an open dry unpromising field filled with dying crops. This mental image created by Steinbeck’s words evokes unpleasant emotion: before the audience is even introduced to the main characters John Steinbeck has already made his audience empathize with the character’s situation. “Men stood by their fences and looked at the ruined corn, drying fast now, only a little green showing through the film of dust. The men were silent and they did not move often, And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men -- to feel whether this time the men would break.” This drought left the farmers with nothing to do but stare at their dying crops, thinking of how their families will make it. Meanwhile, the wives and children were worried about the men in their lives and their lack of resources. “After a while the faces of the
In essence, the Harvest Gypsies was written as a documentary elucidating on the lives of American immigrants into California in search of employment that would help feed their families. The low-income families would work for minimal wages as there were plenty of laborers in the town because of increased immigration. Despite the existence of high wages that could be received from employment for instance harvesting crops, the neighboring towns would not match the extent of labor supply in such a time. Understandably, this period was marked by great depression, affecting poor and rich individuals across the country (Steinbeck and Charles 1998). Due to such, the native poor had to migrate to other states, for instance, California,
During the long journey to California the Joads, and other migrant travelers, encountered many warnings of what California was going to be like from migrants who were returning home, mostly destroyed by the true reality of California. They got a warning in the camp they stayed at on the side of the road while Tom, Al, and Casey were fixing the car. There was...
In this novel Steinbeck set forth with the intention of raising awareness to the general public of the difficulties and injustices these migrants faced during this period in time. It exposed the methods of the California farmer to use the migrants in order to lower their costs and make their profit margin higher. How they starved and cheated the poor, working man, in order to keep him desperate for food and too weak to protest. Above all, it showed everyone that these “damn Okies” were all simply men, women and children, no different from anyone else, just poorer. They were human beings with feelings and not the uncivilized beasts they were portrayed as at the time. Steinbeck portrays the “Okies” in a way no one before him had, and also managed to keep their story true to life. He did this by mainly using dialect, and wrote the “Okie” dialect just as it was spoken, breaking the lines of proper grammar and spelling. If he was concerned with such things it would have ruined the personality of the characters. His unique writing style to capture the atmosphere of these people and the era is evident in this excerpt from his book:
When the migrant men were migrating to California for work, they would have to regularly have to stop their truck and repair its tires or refill its gas. Sometimes, when a migrant family stopped, there would be other families there, too. The two families would begin to talk, realizing that they have a lot in common. These families would then migrate to California together.
Throughout his writing he uses many minor themes and biblical references to get his point across, but the ubiquitous theme is the story of the poor, depression era migrant worker simply trying to retain dignity, achieve the ever important American dream of owning their own plot of land, and end the depravity that is the life of a migrant worker. Characters in Steinbeck's writing always have dreams. Many of the cha...
...f arriving to California, have withered and lost their sense of focus. This is a convincing indication that individuals must come together as one to achieve a common mission.
The Joads moved across the country towards California. As they went through the state of Arizona, they pulled off the side of the road towards a river. As the men were floating in the river, two more men came up and joined them. As the men got to talking, the topic of California came up. He told the Joads that “‘She's a nice country. But she was stole a long time ago...You never seen such purty country-all orchards an' grapes, purtiest country you ever seen. An' you'll pass lan' flat an' fine with water thirty feet down, and that lan's layin' fallow. But you can't have non of that lan'. That's a Lan' and Cattle Company’”(279). The men the Joads are talking to are explaining how the large corporations and businesses own all of the land in California. Even though all the land in California is not being used, it still can’t be farmed on by all the farmers. Steinbeck uses the word “stole[en]” to describe the land in California. By using this word he is criticizing the large corporations for taking all the land. They didn’t just take any normal land but the “purty country” full of “orchards” and “grapes”. This imagery reveals how fertile and luscious California is. Describing California in this way, demonstrates how all the people there should be thriving, while instead they are living in slums and starving to death. According to this passage the farmers should have food to spare, but because of the large industries this is not the case. So ultimately, Steinbeck is critiquing capitalism. First, he shows how the family farmers, which are the majority of the population, can’t make a living any more. Next, he demonstrates that when the power is in the hands of the few rich corporations, the majority of the population is starving without jobs. Steinbeck uses the poor farming families to demonstrate the terrible side of our
The first section of chapter 21 explores the plight of the Okies, who are simple people forced to leave their homes when industrial change complicates their lives. Steinbeck writes, "Their senses were still sharp to the ridiculousness of the industrial life. And then suddenly the machines pushed them out and they swarmed on the highways." This statement relates the beginning of the novel, with particular emphasis on the death of Grampa and Granma. When industrial farming hits the agrarian midwest, the Joads are forced off their land and driven to migration, deserting the house in which they have lived for so long. Before long, Grampa dies of stroke. His life is tied to the land and cannot keep up with such rapid change, and when he dies Granma is sure to follow. The paragraph continues:
This compares to the movie Of Mice and Men because it shows that the actual author for this book really placed himself in this time. This reveals that to actually write a well written piece it’s better to place yourself to completely understand what is going on. Due to the fact that migration to farm labor in California was so big California became over populated, Lennie and George have luck finding a job that can get them by almost reaching them to their enormous dream at the
One final contradiction that Steinbeck uses in his essay that I have personally witnessed is, "In no country are more seeds and plants and equipment purchased, and less vegetables and flowers raised." It seems like every other week my neighbor two houses down brings home bags of seeds for plants, trees, fruits, and vegetables, yet their back yard still looks like all they plant are weeds. They even hire landscapers to come and work on their yard.