The Great Depression in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

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Recommended: John steinbecks use of imagery and language in the grapes of wrath

The Grapes of Wrath is a realist novel that was written by John Steinbeck in the year 1939. The book has gained critical acclamation around the world to result in awards such as the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for fiction and culminated by winning the Nobel Prize in the year 1962. The book was set by the author during the Great Depression in the United States, which has been used to highlight the challenges and experiences of American people during that period. The book focuses on a family by the name the Joads and their struggle to survive in period marked by economic hardship with widespread bank foreclosures that forced a significant number of farmers in the country out of employment. The family was driven from their home by drought given that they were tenant farmers while at the same time struggling with the severe economic hardships (Steinbeck, 1996).
The book has been used widely in American high schools and higher institutions of learning in the country. Some of the events noted in the book include the Dust Bowl, which was influential towards their decision to move to California given their hopeless situation. The decision to move was widespread as other people from Oklahoma or “Oakies” as they are described in the text moved given the changes in the agricultural industry as well as the deteriorating drought. This has been defined by critics as a search for dignity, employment and future for their families (Steinbeck, 1996).
The narrative of the novel begins with Tom Joad after he is granted parole from the McAlester prison after he committed homicide. After his release from prison on his way home he meets his former preacher by the name Jim Casy, who reminds him of his childhood. The two travel together and ...

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...l, the Joad family survives numerous tragedies. The rain has been used to illustrate a new beginning and the end of tragedies to wash away the pain of the Joad family and other migrants who had moved to settle in California. In addition, the author seeks to communicate to his audience of the need for a strong will to overcome hardships and numerous challenges that may come in the form of financial troubles, death, inequality and oppression. During the same period, the author had wished to condemn the growing oppression that migrant workers experienced as they moved to California as result of massive bank foreclosures. He faults the corporate world in America for their never-ending greed and insatiable desire for profits.

Reference
Steinbeck, J. (1996). The grapes of wrath and other writings, 1936-1941. New York: Literary Classics of the United States.

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