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John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is full of satire and controversial themes, one of the most prevalent ones being that the american economic system and social structure during the 1930s was very flawed and oppressive. This is shown by the restricted and ruthless lifestyle of the Joads. Steinbeck incorporates many aspects of the communist ideology to compare the economy of 1930’s America to the economy of industrialized Europe during the mid 1800s. If migrating peoples in the 1930s western United States had access to the Communist Manifesto and a proper education, California would’ve experienced a large scale rebellion.
The first harmful effect of capitalism that is shown in The Grapes of Wrath is the industrialization of the farming process
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across the United States. The innovation of tractors and other agricultural developments caused the large increase in the amount of corporate farms, which quickly caused poverty and unemployment for the smaller family farms. This is illustrated in The Grapes of Wrath when it is explained that “this tractor does two things-it turns the land and turns us off the land… I lost my land, a single tractor took my land. I am alone and bewildered,” (Steinbeck, 194). This account is from an “Okie”, or a tenant farmer from Oklahoma that is migrating towards California in search of work. These were very common because of the heightened difficulty of maintaining a living off of a family farm. The increase in competitive farming limited crop diversification, which led to the degradation of the soil. This process caused the dust bowl to begin with. These criticisms of industrialization are very similar to those found in The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. From this, Marx states that “the bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society...Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones,” (Marx, 12) This is the Marxist depiction of industrialization as it relates to the power of the bourgeoisie, or the upper and middle classes. This is referring to the constant innovations to production methods made by the people of higher socioeconomic status. This can be applied to the owners and corporate farming companies that were able to thrive under 1930s United States capitalism, as shown in The Grapes of Wrath. Another account that exposes the damages of industrialism comes from Jennifer Banach’s “Faith and Justice in ‘Our Own Revolutionary Tradition’” when it is stated that “The rise of industrialism and its technological advancements had widely stratified the classes. A small number of agriculturalists, industrialists, and financiers had amassed incredible wealth while more and more workers… had slid into poverty,” (Banach, 29). This depiction is very similar to the Marxist one, and would suggest that the hatred of industrialism mentioned in the Communist Manifesto would have been very familiar to the Okies of the 1930s American west. Through the rise of industrialism, the wealth gap between the classes during the Great Depression and the dust bowl had increased greatly.
In an ideal thriving model of capitalism, it is implied that the larger corporations and wealthier classes increase in size to provide employment for the rest of the population as well as invest in other opportunities for others. This “trickle down” economic system that was prevalent in the early 20th century United States was also a cause for the gripping poverty of the Okies. In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family comes across a father and his son soon after arriving in California. The father explains that, “there’s three hundred thousan’ of our people there-an’ livin’ like hogs, ‘cause ever’thing in California is owned. They ain’t nothin’left. An’ them people that owns it is gonna hang on to it if they got ta kill ever’body in the worl’ to do it,” (Steinbeck, 265) This shows the fear of the landowners that is caused by the depression. Because of the fear of poverty, the landowners and people of wealth wouldn’t invest or sell their land, causing a lack of opportunity for the recently migrated tenant farmers. This is shown in Jennifer Banach’s “Faith and Justice in ‘Our Own Revolutionary Tradition’” and it is explained that “With less income, businesses and families spent less, thus accelerating the economy’s downward spiral,” (Banach, 30). This conservation of assets within the landowners was a large reason for the lack of opportunity in an economy that runs on
it. The proposed solution from Karl Marx regarding the difference in wealth between the classes was the elimination of the private property of the bourgeoisie. In the context of The Grapes of Wrath, this would imply a forced distribution of the land and capital of the landowners. In the novel, several men being unashamedly jealous of the land in the fields around them. One of them makes the statement that “there’s thirty thousan’ acres, out west of here. Layin’ there. Jesus, what I could do with that, with five acres of that! Why, hell, I’d have ever’thing to eat,” (Steinbeck, 302). Some of these men were desperate enough to attempt to plant a small crop of their own in owned land. They, “crept on the land and cleared a piece, trying like a thief to steal a little richness from the earth. Secret gardens hidden in the weeds,” (Steinbeck, 303). This shows the prevalent disposition among the men to take advantage of owned land. In the words of a member of the upper middle class of the book, “These… Okies are thieves. They'll steal anything. They've got no sense of property rights,” (Steinbeck, 363). This evidence all suggests that the lower class of 1930’s United States would support the redistribution of private property. This concept is best explained in Marx’s words when he addresses those offended by the notion by saying, “ You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths,” (Marx, 25). This would justify the concept of distribution of assets, especially in the minds of the desperate Okies. The hunger and intense poverty of the migrating farmers became even more unbearable with the event of overproduction by the landowners. In an attempt to control the prices of produce and other goods through change in supply, companies discarded some of their capital. This is shown in The Grapes of Wrath, when it is explained that “ the works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit-and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains” (Steinbeck, 448). This lack of humanity that comes with this instance of overproduction is also described in The Communist Manifesto. Regarding these issues, Marx states that “In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity-the epidemic of overproduction…. [Society] appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence...too much industry, too much commerce,” (Marx, 15) This is a very accurate explanation of the nature and reasoning behind overproduction, especially in the economical situation in The Grapes of Wrath. The livelihoods of the lower classes are mostly not considered in the novel and the landowners would always do whatever is necessary to turn a profit. Another injustice exercised on the migrating tenant farmers during the 1930s in western United States is the persistent fluctuation of wages for the same job. This aspect of the laissez faire economic system is also criticised in The Communist Manifesto when Marx explains that “the essential condition for the existence and sway of the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labor. Wage-labor rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the laborers, due to competition…” (Marx, 21). This explains that through competition and surplus of work supply, the bourgeoisie are able to economically adjust their wages. This freedom of influence on the wages of the lower class by the landowners is shown in The Grapes of Wrath in Tom Joad’s encounter with Casy during his time at the Hooper ranch. When Casy hears how high the wages are for the Joads, he tells him, “We come to work there. They says it’s gonna be fi’ cents. They was a hell of a lot of us. We got there an’ they says they’re payin’ two an’ a half cents. A fella can’t even eat on that, an’ if he got kids-So we says we won’t take it. So they druv us off… Now they’re payin’ you five,” (Steinbeck, 491). This shows the freedom and lack of consequences held to the landowners for changing the price for labor. Because the group that was with Casy was larger, the ranch lowered the wage because of the desperate nature of many of the migrating farmers. This situation is also referenced and explained thoroughly in Brian Railsback’s “ The Darwinian Grapes of Wrath”. After the explanation of the handbills that established the surplus of labor, Railsback states, “the owners [were] unconscious of the other part of the equation, that increased competition only toughens the survivors,” (Railsback, 153). This is a positive outlook to the mistreatment and dehumanization of the Okies and impoverished tenant farmers. The farmers understand the unfair pricing and would agree wholeheartedly with the criticisms of laissez faire government that is proposed in The Communist Manifesto. One of the main points that can be interpreted from The Grapes of Wrath is that during an economic crisis, a capitalist society cannot support itself. This is clearly stated by Stephen Railton in his essay titled, “Pilgrims’ Politics: Steinbeck’s Art of Conversion,”. Railton explains that, “The Grapes of Wrath is a novel about an old system dying, and a new one beginning to take root...The system that is dying we can call American capitalism, the roots of which had always been the promises of individual opportunity and of private property as the reward for taking risks and working hard,” (Railton, 27). This system is what gives the landowners and farming corporations land and power, and the unrest shown by the lower classes in The Grapes of Wrath is a clear indication of a failing economic system that is due for social reforms. This perspective of capitalism is also shared by Karl Marx with his statement that, “the bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society as an overriding law,” (Marx, 21) in The Communist Manifesto. Both of these describe the situation in The Grapes of Wrath where the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many, which is a cause for socio economic reform.
One of the ironies of Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath was that, as Ma Joad said, "If your in trouble or hurt or need -- go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help -- the only ones."(pg 335) The irony is that if you need something you have to go to the people who have nothing.
... and banks. The 'fermenting anger' which Steinbeck describes also relates to the novel's title, as grapes serve as a symbol of the migrants, and the wrath represents their anguish and hardship. The thin line between hunger and anger is broken by the changes in land ownership, and retaliation of the workers is the inevitable result.
How does California seem to modern America? Violent. Crowded. Filled with bad people. People who live in cities and have lost touch with the earth. These people are portrayed in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath as Californians. Yet, people from the Midwest flocked to California seeking prosperity and opportunity. Their land had been taken by the banks and turned into cotton fields. They were left homeless and desperate. These people sought to work in the fields where they could eat a peach or sit under a tree to relax.
John Steinbeck wrote a book, The Grapes of Wrath, which would change forever the way Americans, thought about their social classes and even their own families. The novel was completed in 1938 and then published in 1939. When this novel was released the critics saw it as being very controversial. Some critics called it a master piece, while others called it pornography. Steinbeck's attack of the upper-class and the readers' inability to distinguish the fictitiousness of the book often left his readers disgruntled. The time period in which this book was written was the 1930's while there was a horrible drought going on in the Oklahoma pan handle and during the Great Depression. Thousands of Oklahoma families were forced off their land because of their failure to farm and as a result they were unable to pay their bills so the banks were foreclosing on their houses. This resulted in a huge population of people all migrating west to California, because they were promised work by big fruit plantations. Unfortunately, when this mass of people showed up the jobs with high wages advertised on the pamphlets were not there. This left them homeless and in deep poverty with no where to go. The families would stay in California though either in hoovervilles or government camps. Steinbeck brings you along with the Joads on their journey to California. Although Steinbeck shows some comparisons between the Joads and the greater migrant community, the Joads do not serve as a microcosm of that culture because they differ in regards to leadership of the family and also the Joads' willingness to give to anyone.
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.
In the twenty-fifth chapter of his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck presents the reader with a series of vivid images, accompanied by a series of powerful indictments. Steinbeck effectively uses both the potent imagery and clear statements of what he perceives as fact to convey his message. This short chapter offers a succinct portrayal of one of the major themes of the larger work. Namely, the potential bounty of nature corrupted and left to rot by a profit-driven system, a system that ultimately fails.
The Grapes of Wrath: No One Man, But One Common Soul. & nbsp; & nbsp; Many writers in American literature try to instill philosophy of their choosing into their reader. This is often a philosophy derived at from their own personal experiences. John Steinbeck is no exception to this. When traveling through his native California in the mid-1930s. Steinbeck witnessed people living in appalling conditions of extreme poverty due to the Great Depression and the agricultural disaster known as the Dust Bowl. He noticed that these people received no aid whatsoever. from neither the state of California nor the federal government. The rage. he experienced from seeing such treatment fueled his novel The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck sought to change the suffering plight of these farmers. who had migrated from the Midwest to California. Also, and more.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck, which focuses on an Oklahoman family that is evicted from their farm during an era of depression caused by the Dust Bowl. The Joad family alongside thousands of other refugees (also affected by the dirty thirties) migrates west towards California seeking employment and a new home. John Steinbeck’s purpose for writing this novel was to inform his audience of how many of their fellow Americans were being mistreated and of the tribulations they faced in order to attain regain what they once had. As a result, The Grapes of Wrath triggered its audience’s sympathy for the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers and their families.
The Grapes Of Wrath is a book full of troubles and tragedy that a family from Oklahoma face on their journey to California to find work to support themselves. Forced to leave their home and the place they grew up the Joads encounter corrupt people who exploit them, horrible living conditions, death, unsuitable weather conditions and situations that truly tests them. This book shows just how much a family can maintain their dignity by defying corruption, authority, and Mother Nature herself.
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, is a novel depicting the Okies migration to California during the period in history known as The Dustbowl. In this novel Steinbeck attempts to display the tensions between the Okies and the Californians. This display can be closely compared to today’s tensions between citizens born in the US and the Immigrants. Great pieces of literature are timeless in the lessons they teach and the controversy they portray.
Wyatt, David. New Essays on the Grapes of Wrath. New York: Cambridge UP, 1990. Print.
Incomprehensibly, The Grapes of Wrath is both a praiseworthy radical investigation of the abuse of horticultural workers and the climaxes in the thirties of a verifiably racist focusing on whites as victimized people. The novel barely specifies the Mexican and Filipino migrant workers who commanded the California fields and plantations into the late thirties, rather intimating that Anglo-Saxo...
As depicted in John Steinbeck's novel Grapes of Wrath the 1930's was a time when migrant workers like the story's Joad family had to leave their homes, cross a perilous desert, live through the social injustices of the time, and work at jobs with low insufficient pay just to have a better life (Steinbeck). Seventy years later, the situations and experiences stay the same but the people are no longer native-born Americans but illegal immigrants who sacrifice everything to come to the United States to live a better life, as a result of that the 500,000 immigrants that illegally enter the United States through the Mexican border annually and stay in the country are the Joads of today (Aizenman).
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work.
Steinbeck criticizes capitalism by portraying the banks and companies as insensitive monsters who, for the sake of profit, heartlessly force the farmers off their lands. When the Dust Bowl hits, the small farmers lose profit and could barely survive on the little they have, but since the bank “has to have profit all the time,” it callously forces the farmers off their land (pg 42). Capitalism, built on the idea of making profit, gets rid of anything that hinders financial gain. The bank could have a...