In the 1930’s the United States was in a huge depression in all aspects of people’s daily lives. They were losing jobs left and right, evicted from their homes, and so much more, hence the name of that time period, the Great Depression. John Steinbeck was an author one of his best works of fiction the story story that is set in the 1930’s during the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath. This novel is about a family of farmers who were not able to earn money through working off the land that they owned before they left, and so they decided to move to the west to find jobs in California. From this fictional work, we can learn that so many people went through the struggles of unemployment, poverty, losing their houses, etc. John Steinbeck’s work shows his readers that the struggle of the Joad family is how most people lived during the 1930’s and how the United States was in big trouble; economically, culturally, politically, and socially.
People were in big trouble economically because most of them could not afford to keep their farm or their house and they ended up getting evited. Not only was it bad to evict somebody that could not afford their place, it was even worse if they were getting by and their tenants could not afford to keep them because either way they had to end up leaving and figuring out something else to do because their whole lives would have changed. Tom, the main character of this novel, has recently got out of prison and is on parole, because he kind of kept to himself and did what he was told when he was in jail. When he tries to come back to his family home, he sees how much has changed and how much he had missed over the past few years. He sees that more people are having to make huge decisions because they either cannot live on the land they have, or their family is moving so they move with them to survive, Tom ends up being one of those people, having to move. He finally ends up back at his house, only to realize that his family are no longer at the home he remembers and that they have plans to save up money to move to the west for a better life. In the book, when Tom is talking to his old pal Muley, Muley says,
“Well, they been choppin’ cotton, all of ‘em, even the kids an’ your grampa. Gettin’ money together so they can shove on west. Gonna buy a car and shove on west where it’s easy livin’. There ain’t nothin’ here. Fifty centers a clean acre for choppin’ cotton, an’ folks beggin’ for the chance to chop.”1
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What Muley is saying here is that the Joad family is ready to move on and have a better life because the one they were living currently is hard and they need to find something better. They want to make something more of themselves and give everyone in their family a better and easier life. The Joad’s have been working their tails off to raise enough money to move west even if it just gets 1% easier. Most people during the Great Depression migrated west to look for factory jobs or really anything they could find that could pay them more than what they were making people. In contrast with the previous statement, a lot of people did not get the chance to move westward and did not have any clue what they were going to do next because of how economically unstable the United States was. The richer people did not have to worry about money as much of the poorer people because they had a lot of it. Even if someone had a bit more money than another, they would do what they could to get more and avoid losing money because that could mean not providing for those that are counting on them.
On the side of culture, a lot did change for the people during the Great Depression and who they were or were going to become. The Great Depression was not some awakening to where people could fix their problems right away. The ones who lived through this could not just get up and say things were going to change. This period was so difficult for them because most did not have homes to go back to and a lot of the time were separated from their families. Later on in the novel, Steinback goes on to write, “ IN THE LITTLE HOUSES the tenant people sifted their belongings and the belongings of their fathers and of their grandfathers. Picked over their possessions for the journey to the west.” (Steinbeck, 86)2 To the journey out west, people had to bring what they could carry, and then some. The Joads picked out what were the most important items to them because they could not carry everything they wanted to keep. Culture was lost through things that the migrants could not bring because different things hold multiple values on different levels. They leave their home to move for a better life only to find out that everything is not as easy as it seems. They all encounter more hardship and even characters like the grandparents and former preacher Jim Casey end up passing away.
In a way culture dies off with the people who die during the Great Depression because everyone was just going through this sad period and it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when the tunnel was so long and dark. In the novel, the grandma always seemed to reference the church or praying in some way. Even though Jim Casy was not a preacher anymore, there were multiple times where she would tell him to pray for them or pray with her. Those who had a little bit more religion/faith within them had somewhat of an easier time with everything that was going on. She goes on to say, “Well . . . why ain’t you prayin? You’re a preacher, ain’t you?” (Steinbeck, 137)3 There is a certain admiration towards those who choose to see the light and hope within religion. Not to discourage anyone who was going through something rough, which they all were, but in a cultural sense, they would not forget about the religious aspects that they believed have helped them before through rough times.
Politics played a big part in the economic crisis during this period because nobody really focused on the minorities, the poor, etc. The people who had to ride around on basically what was a bulldozer and plow other houses down did not really care whose house and life they were destroying, they were just doing what they were told just to get their few dollars a day so that they can have money to provide and care for their family. Politics also played a huge part leading up to the Great Depression because all the wars are basically politics. Who is better than who and who will be on top just to be more powerful than others is what war comes down to. If a lot of bad choices were not made, then there would not have been such a large widespread of depression in all aspects throughout the country. Also referring to politics, the Great Depression also brought out the worst in others, whether people were fighting over lands, jobs, money, and more. Jim Casy ended up being killed by an officer of the law in a worker’s strike soon after he and Tom end up meeting again. The strike had everything to do with politics because the workers were not being treated fairly and they were striking for change. Tom joined the cause because he believed that the workers deserved better but after Jim died, Tom was afraid to be caught by the police, because he was still on parole.
The social changes that occurred during the Great Depression were some of the biggest and most devastating. The different social changes included negative effects on people, unemployment, and the decline in health; both mentally and physically. Unemployment was a major social change and people say to be the biggest because unemployment skyrockets all of the other problems that go on during the Great Depression. Unemployment leads to having to move to find a better job and other better opportunities because what else are people supposed to do. During that time period, a lot of people were already poor, and the Great Depression added so much more to that. Either people moved around to find a better job, or they spiraled out of control.
At the beginning of the book, Tom and Jim Casy are sitting and talking, to where Tom pulls out a bottle of liquor. Tom asks Casy, “You ain’t too holy to take a drink, are you?” 4 All of this stress of unemployment, and more, led to more people drinking and ruining their physical and mental health. For a certain time, drinking helps people take their minds off what is really going on and they do not want to let go of that. It is deranged to think that the problems would go away so quickly and that is why there was a rise in the amount of people drinking. All of the stressed caused by everything that was going on did not help anybody’s mental or physical health. Many people got sick mentally and physically, for example, Grandpa Joad ended up dying of a stroke, which all the problems going on around him did not help him out.
The Joad’s truly believed that there was something better in California and that is why they moved. A lot of people did have the opportunity to have a better life, but most people did not because of how competitive everything was. It is logical to say that family feuds were started by everything that was going on and even safe to say that families were torn apart. Even the Joad’s did not stay together in the book, with people leaving for their own reasons.
In conclusion, John Steinbeck’s work shows the readers of the book, The Grapes of Wrath, an actual representation of how hard it was living through the Great Depression. Families were torn apart, jobs were lost, people died more rapidly, people lost all of their money, etc. His work is said to be historically accurate because John Steinbeck was alive through all that was happening in the Great Depression. The life that the Joad family lived and the hardships that they had to go through were real accounts of what happened in people’s everyday lives. The Grapes of Wrath is a very clear novel to real for an actual representation of lives during the Great Depression.
