The grapes of wrath and the great depression
The Great Depression and The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath portrays how the great depression affected the lives of industrialists and the common people of the era in both positive and negative way. The Grapes of Wrath has put the great depression in a different perspective. During that era, tragedies occurred such as, inhumanity, selfishness, and poverty. However, the great depression wasn’t complete downfall, such as, growth, maturity, and the power of family and fellowship. The Grapes of Wrath demonstrated that during the 1930’s life wasn’t just terrible, that era taught more than misfortunes. Mans inhumanity to man was one of the negative consequences of the great depression. “Steinbeck consistently and woefully points to the fact that the migrants’ great suffering is caused not by bad weather or mere misfortune but by their fellow human beings” (Bloom 102). Social, historical, and economical circumstances separate man into, black and white, rich and poor, and land owner and tenant (Bloom 20). In The Grapes of Wrath Mexicans were treated like animals. Social situations also ties into the economical differences. Simply being poor or rich hurt the social standard of a person. The people in the dominant roles struggle viciously to preserve their positions. Therefore, the men that consider themselves socially higher than others, treat the less popular men differently and inhumane. The novel draws a simple line through the population and identifies that division as the primary source of evil and suffering in the world. According to Steinbeck, many of the evils that trouble the Joad family and the migrants stem from selfishness. Self-interest motivated the landowners and businessmen to keep a system that sank thousands of families into poverty. Migrants were aware that working together and unite would be the only things to help reach their dreams and goals. Throughout the novel Steinbeck emphasizes that selfishness is a bittersweet