Something youâve read before...
If you've not read John Steinbeck's iconic and brilliant novel "The Grapes of Wrath" in the past half century or so, another look can be refreshing, if only to revisit depression era economics. For decades High Schools have made Steinbeck's novel required reading, with the majority of students slugging through the text to mark it as complete on the required list, never to return to it again. Seasoned Steinbeck readers prefer "East of Eden", or "Of Mice and Men". However, for many reasons (some apparent and some not) "The Grapes of Wrath" travels in the orbit of the best known American novels - period, let alone a Steinbeck book.
One of Steinbeck's "labor novels", the story follows the journey of the Joad family as they cross over to the Southern California valley from Oklahoma during the time of the Dust Bowl, though the dust bowl is only indirectly mentioned in the book. What is more prominent is the role of bank finance for small family farms during that era (or the apparent lack of), and the largely unregulated lending tactics that pushed families into foreclosure and economic chaos as living off the farm was THE skill for the primary breadwinners. Big business during this period was beginning its foray into farming as a mass industrial enterprise, and their resulting efficiencies, made the individual farmer a risky bet for banks.
The Joads, having lost their farm to the bank were faced with a major decision - stay local or go. Rumors of a bountiful life in the fruitful valleys of Southern California tempted the Joad family to leave the only land they had known. âHandbills" circulated, promised plenty of work in the orchards and vineyards, which in theory was true - thousands of laborers were needed. The Joadâs feeling they had no choice, quickly consolidated the family and assets to make the hard journey west. The route in actuality, was the path for the largest domestic migration in US history - which occurred between 1930 and 1940, when 3.5 million people moved out of the plains states, most of them moving west. The novel indirectly covers the mass migration through the many encounters of the Joad family.
The circulators of the handbills had adroitly ginned up demand for labor, creating a surplus, way in favor of the growers/farmers, pushing wages down to abysmal levels. The Joad family, having zero knowledge of the labor conditions at the outset, would, in bits and pieces glean the intel of the crappy conditions in California along the way from various characters of questionable standing. The Joads being all in, refused to allow any significant credence to the forecast ââ-holding fast to the dream (Grandpas dream) of fruit juices rolling off their chins in the lush land of plenty.
This rush from pain, to relief is a recurring force throughout the book, a force that drives action, but also a force that blinds as evidenced by the familyâs conviction to the printed word (the handbill). The Joads were, like many families vulnerable to the singular solution and the quick exit. The Joads may not be the model of sophistication by contemporary standards, but its not hard to see the parallels to modern marketing by a wide swath of industry players like credit card companies, banks and the like, which exploits the gap between the pain of now to the green fields of relief. We all at some point fall for it - and why wouldnât the Joads?
I was not alive during the Great Depression, but my parents were, and Iâve also read like everyone else, volumes of stories and accounts from all angles, fiction to non fiction of the Great Depression. And the single defining characteristic that binds all who lived through it, was pain. Pain in hunger, pain in shelter, pain with jobs, pain experienced when families crumbled under the weight of scarcity. And pain is what John Steinbeck so acutely names throughout the story.
Of the many themes, class and socio economic status are prominent. The id of the Joads is that of agrarian survivalists, who then discover they are referred to as âOkiesâ by the prevailing Californians, who are wary of the newcomers, or any disruption to their peace and homogeneity. In the book and elsewhere, the term Okies serves as a vague proxy for race, and other-ism in American culture. The Okies are treated like dirt and reviled, and the otherwise strong family unit like the Joads, now had to contend with a form of racism, along with their poverty. Steinbeck's narrator is a neutral 3rd person, but has a clear lens for the pain of the Joads poverty and highlights the visceral struggles of the often clear thinking, sometimes violent, ex-con, Tom Joad. Joad, is a flawed hero, an American archetype . Tom Joad deals internally with his past (time in prison for manslaughter), but he is at the same time, the clear leader of the family, and those around him. His no nonsense, quick thinking persona draws the reader in, and you cannot help but root for him.
Culturally Tom Joad lives on. Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against the Machine, Woody Guthrie, and Mumford and Sons, have all recorded songs that more or less relate to his plight, and that of the dust bowl migrant. Tom Joad has become a euphemism for the hard luck labor guy, scraping by, living on the fringes of a reasonable human existence. At the same time, in the novel he lives to find his reason for being, and does not give up on his people (laborers) or himself intellectually.
The Grapes of Wrath can be unforgettable or an extended polemic on the evils of a capitalist market, exploiting migrant labor. But, deciphering the absolutes out this story and into binary form would be an insult to Steinbeck and to you, the reader. So I donât think a hard choice needs to be made - the book is brilliant, which leaves the reader with much, much to think about.
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