The Grapes of Poverty – A Look at The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most renowned realist works of the twentieth century and a cornerstone of American literature. John Steinbeck wrote it in 1939, inspired by the Great Depression that struck the United States in 1929.

The story follows the Joad family, focusing on Tom Joad, the main character who has just been released from prison. Upon returning to his home in his rural hometown, he discovers that the village has been largely abandoned. Friends and relatives, people with whom he shared memories, have left, leaving behind an overwhelming silence.

Right from this introduction, while we meet Tom as the hero, the antagonist of the story is also introduced. This antagonist is not a single person but a force, represented in the opening dialogues by banks and tractors. Both symbolize the unbridled capitalism of early twentieth-century America, which caused poverty in specific regions, the economic ruin of a class, and widespread migration.

The Joad family embarks on a great migration to the fertile lands of California, driven by hope and the dream of a better life.

The migration is long and fraught with hardship, including the deaths of family members and fellow travelers. This group of migrants represents farmers, migrant workers, and the marginalized population of America at the time.

The Joads are a large family spanning multiple generations, genders, and social roles. Each character is carefully and convincingly developed to represent a different generation, class, or gender in that period of American history. The grandfather, who dies quickly due to his attachment to the land, symbolizes the farmers and previous generation of Americans before the arrival of banks and tractors. The younger generation, Tom’s siblings, embodies the uncertain and dangerous future awaiting children in California’s migrant communities.

The industrial transformations in twentieth-century America, accompanied by the concentration of wealth in banks and factories, serve as the source of all the story’s hardships. Banks seize lands, and tractors bring automation that renders laborers jobless, creating a class of stateless migrants. This process not only destroys family farming but also replaces it with large estates employing numerous workers living in small homes.

The abundance of displaced laborers gives employers the opportunity to exploit them and strip away their rights. The dream of good work in California reflects Benjamin Franklin’s American Dream. By the twentieth century, many intellectuals criticized and ridiculed this dream, highlighting its often unattainable nature.

The American Dream mirrors the migration dream of the Joad family. The Grapes of Wrath can be classified among stories following the quest narrative. However, unlike typical examples where the quest revolves around a valuable object or a noble goal, the Joads’ quest is simple yet profound: finding stable work in a new land.

The novel is considered leftist due to its support for workers’ rights, its critique of capitalism, and its depiction of capitalist greed as morally repugnant. The story explores the emergence of rebellious anger in a man who once sought only a simple life. A man who ultimately sees no choice but to defy the law, a law that protects the interests of the wealthy and treats migrants as inherently suspect.

Tom’s final reaction can be interpreted as a revolutionary uprising. At a time when ideas of labor and anti-capitalist revolutions had many supporters, this response could be seen as an invitation to revolt. However, Steinbeck later distanced himself from endorsing labor or socialist revolutions and never officially supported such movements.