The Grapes of Wrath - Question 5

How does this novel reflect the history, behaviors and social issues of the time period and setting?

This book, unlike the last book that I blogged about (Fahrenheit 451), is not about a futuristic society that parallels our society. And I promise I won't make any assumptions that Steinbeck was psychic. Steinbeck wrote this novel right after three major events in American history. The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and the stock market crash were all events in history that were depicted in this story. The Great Depression was caused by the stock market crash. Basically, a whole bunch of heavy investors got scared when foreign investors started selling all of their stocks, so the big investors sold all of theirs and that caused a chain reaction and soon, everyone was selling stocks and no one wanted to buy them and the stock market crashed. That left the American economy in shambles. Because of that, America went into a depression, which we know as the Great Depression. The story accurately depicts the time period because it tells of a time where the Joads stay in a town known as a "Hooverville." Hooverville's were groups of card board boxes that people lived in during the depression. People named them after President Hoover, who they blamed for the Great Depression.

One major symbol in the story are the bugs. The author depicts the images of many bugs throughout the story. He shows the relation between the bugs and the humans. The humans are able to easily kill the bugs, and treat them very poorly. The tenant farmers treat the humans much like bugs. They don't kill them by squashing them, but they treat them very poorly. The author also uses his ability to describe things with colors as a symbol. Steinbeck often describes the Oklahoma landscape with colors such as yellow or gold. That makes the reader think of money and how the Oklahoma landscape used to be rich and plentiful.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.