The Artist In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

In a 1962 essay called “The Creative Process” James Baldwin establishes the role of an artist. Authors are forced to write about subjects the general population doesn’t want to hear but needs to. Baldwin also points out the ideal aloneness an author must be comfortable with in order to write not what society wants him to, but what he truly feels. John Steinbeck fulfils many of the roles of an artist mentioned by Baldwin. In Steinbeck's book, published in 1939, called “The Grapes of Wrath”, he tell the story of the Joad family and their journey from Oklahoma to the promise land of California and their many struggle along the way. Steinbeck through the theme of social responsibility, fulfils his duty of an artist according to Baldwin. This theme

Baldwin says, “We do the things we do and feel feel what we feel essentially because we must-- we are responsible for our actions, but we rarely understand them” (Balwin 1). Humans don’t understand why they do what they do, but they do it anyway. The role of an artist is to then make people think of the cause and not only the effects. An artist’s purpose is to write of the truths in order to keep society from damaging itself. In the Grapes of Wrath, a man is eating at a cafe, as he walks out after finishing his meal, a hitchhiker asks for a ride. The man look at the truck and the large sign on the said that says, “no riders”. As he looks back, the hitchhiker tells him to be a good guy. The driver is then faced with a decision. Steinbeck says, “If he took in the hitchhiker he was automatically a good guy and also he was not one whom any rich man could kick around. And he wanted to be a good guy” (Steinbeck 7). If the driver were to let the hitchhiker in his car he would be jeopardizing his job by breaking the company’s rules. The hitchhiker manipulates the driver into giving him a ride by testing his morals. The driver feels responsible to help the hitchhiker since he has a car to give him a ride. Steinbeck is showing people the tensions in society between those who haved what they need to survive, and those who do not. By using the theme of social responsibility,

In “The Creative Process” Baldwin says, “The human beings whom we respect the most, after all-and sometimes fear the most-are those who are most deeply involved in this delicate and strenuous effort, for they have unshakable authority that comes only from having looked on and endured and survived the worst” (Baldwin 2). The people in this world who are mostly highly thought of are those who been through the hardest times and came out on top, while they are highly respected they are sometimes feared also. When the Joad family reaches California, they are forced to settle into a Hooverville for the first night since they couldn’t find any work to make some money. Hoovervilles were small camps where all the families who had nothing stayed, many times their houses were made of cardboard boxes. After a long day of searching for work, Ma decides to make her family a stew with what was left of the meat they started the journey with. As she begins cooking, Ma can feel all the beating eyes of the starving children staring at her and the food she was preparing. Ma wants to feed the children but knows that there is barely enough food to feed her family in the pot. She gives her family members their bowls of stew and tells them to go inside the tent. The next day another mother from the camp approaches Ma and says, “My little come back smellin’ of stew. You give it to ‘im. He tol’ me. Don’ you go