How The Struggles Of The Joad Family In The Grapes Of Wrath

In “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck portrays the struggles of the Joad family during the events of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. The family was forced to migrate to California for a better life, due to the horrible conditions put upon them. Consequent to arriving in California, the Joad family was exposed to the harsh living environment of migrants. This puts their previous thoughts about luxurious California in conflict. As they continue to travel in California, their expectations continue to decline as the lack of housing becomes almost nonexistent. From the years of the book “The Grapes of Wrath”, the lack of affordable housing is still ongoing. This crisis is still applicable due to California’s housing problem of preventing

affordable housing, while the community of homelessness accumulates.
The lack of affordable housing and homelessness is unmistakably important in “The Grapes Of Wrath”.

This issue affects both the Joad family and many migrants, as they are both searching for proper living conditions. Before migrating to California, the Joad family, especially Ma Joad, imagined to live in a little white house surrounded by orange trees. Their dreams later become a false reality as the family discovers the impossibility. However, instead of being completely homeless, they come upon the town Hooverville. This town was created specifically towards unemployed migrants shelter. Migrants came together to construct temporary homes and creating a whole new community for themselves. The Joads join the community until they realize Hooverville was only going to be temporary. The police and many landowners resented Hooverville; the way migrants were able to create a suitable community. Soon the Joad family and migrants were forced to leave Hooverville sand continue on their job searching journey. The Joad family never had a chance to settle down at a decent living space. They were always forced to continue traveling due to the lack of money they possessed. Throughout this book, Steinbeck shows the poor conditions other families lived in, as the Joad family passed them at the edge of the roads. In the different living conditions the Joad family and other migrants lived in, they all struggled to find somewhere suitable for both their family and health. The strict law

enforcements led to communities of people constantly fighting for fair treatment in livable housing.
In an SFGate article, Amy Graff, the United Nations rapporteur on adequate housing, shares her discoveries regarding the housing crisis in the Bay Area.

The Bay Area has one of the largest and least amount of sheltered homeless population in the country. She was surprised to the immense amount of people sleeping on the streets every night. It is deeply dehumanizing living in horrible conditions streets provide. It is also disheartening for anyone to live in such despair. Every homeless person she interviewed, stated how they just wanted to be treated like human beings. The homeless in the eyes of the government are looked down upon and seen as unimportant along side of middle and upper class. Amy also explains the disturbing logic of how California is a successful and rich state, yet the government is not anything to help the homelessness. Instead, they are deteriorating human rights standards. In San Francisco alone, 7,500 people are homeless due to the recent influx of housing prices. Most of the people living on the streets are living with a “structural trauma”. People have either lost their job, evicted by landlords, or can’t afford housing. Residents of San Francisco are continuing to find ways to prevent homelessness from increasing and to find proper housing for

people.
Despite the year differences, the lack of affordable housing and homelessness in “The Grapes of Wrath” is comparable to today. In “The Grapes of Wrath”, migrants were left with no houses to live, resulting in poor health conditions. Like today, many people in the Bay Area are struggling to afford housing. The only solution is to live on the streets. However, in both “The Grapes of Wrath” and events happening today, people describe the conditions of homelessness as dehumanizing.The encampments in San Francisco and Hooverville are more than similar. In the article, Amy mentions how many people now are put into encampments, but the lifespan they can stay there is temporary. Both homeless people nowadays and the migrants are constantly moving; trying to find a safe place for their next night sleep. Unions were formed in both “The Grapes of Wrath” and in San Francisco, as both were set forth to fight for equity on living conditions and human rights.
As an ongoing issue, homelessness is not just directed towards migrants and people in San Francisco, but to many others. The underlying problem to this crisis is the influx prices to affordable homes and surprise evictions that implode further homelessness. Even though improvements like encampments are provided, these are only temporary fixes. However, any service provided to prevent an increase in homelessness is abundant. Implementing new laws to improve housing economically and financially would be a tremendous benefit. Rather than allowing continuous suffer, people need to come together to diminish this dilemme for future generations.