The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck published his novel the The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, shortly after the great depression. It’s set in the time of the dust bowl, where much of the top soil of the great plains, from Texas all the way up to Canada, was blown away after years of unsustainable farming methods combined with a decade long drought. Because of this, many of the subsistence farmers who had lived on the plains since the great westward migration were forced off their land, either because they could no longer grow enough to support themselves, or because the land they rented was repossessed by the banks and turned into giant fields which could turn a profit when worked by tractors. In all about a million ‘Okies’, as they were know because they predominantly came from Oklahoma, made the journey from the plains to California. Steinbeck documents the gruelling trip west of the Joad family and the injustices they faced when they arrived in California. He presents a simple, yet moral and compassionate family, who are at the mercy of forces they cannot understand.

Steinbeck was greatly criticised upon the release of the book, it was even banned in some states. The main accusations were that he was a leftist or communist and that he had romanticised the Okies, demonised the big businessmen and exaggerated the conditions the Okies lived in when they arrived in California. From my perspective, I think it is a brilliant work of left-leaning, worker supporting literature, and I find it ironic that it is now a standard issue high school book throughout much of the USA, the citadel of capitalism. His anger at the exploitation of the worker at the hands of the bourgeoisie and establishment comes through powerfully in the character of Tom Joad (made famous thanks to Springsteen):

Then I’ll be all around in the dark - I’ll be ever’where—wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there… I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’—I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folk eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build—why, I’ll be there.

Tom Joad is the pivotal character of the book, he is the first person we come into contact with and he represents the opression, anger and helplessness of the average Okie. He is morally complex however, as the book opens we meet him returning home from jail having served time for murder; Steinbeck shows us that despite his flaws his heart is in the right place and uses his thoughts and actions to provide a reflection of the reader. I found Tom Joad acting in the way I would like to act and making manifest the passion and anger I felt as I followed his journey.

Steinbeck’s own views come out in the narrator chapters scattered throughout the story. This clear, poetic, detached viewpoint juxtaposes beautifully with the harsh vernacular tongue of the rest of the book; it provides respite and allows him to convey a more rounded and far reaching point of view. The following quotes are two of my favourites:

…every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day—the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they’ll all walk together, and there’ll be a dead terror from it.

Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow. …and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

Steinbeck taps into the rage of the impoverished, but more importantly he captures their will to survive, you rarely find the family despairing at the terrible situation they are in, rather the book is a tale of drive after drive in pursuit of a dream which is ultimately a fantasy. I ended up pitying them because all their work was in vain, but admiring them for their unstoppable will to survive and their simple yet profound sense of morality.

I think it is fantastic that seventy years on Steinbeck is still important, and his books are so widespread. People need to read such things, they need to feel the anger and compassion, and they need to channel that energy into trying to help solve these problems for the exploited and downtrodden of our day. In Grapes of Wrath he has written an epic, moving and powerful yet gentle and compassionate book, and thankfully his achievement has not been overlooked.