Response To Steinbeck: The Dust Bowl
Due to the stock market crash in the 1920’s, many people panicked, and the economy went into a downward spiral. Farmers during this time were the ones who were hit the hardest. Since they were hit with the dust storm known as the Dust Bowl, they could no longer grow and sell their products. They had no way to pay for their land due to the decline in production and ended up having their land taken from them by the banks. The agricultural economy was affected because of the sequence of events. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck revealed the Dust Bowl was the largest crisis during the Great Depression because of its poor effects on the farmers. It made families lose hope, forced farmers to face unbearable tragedies, showed how tenant farmers lived through harsh conditions, and proved that these workers had nothing guaranteed. The Joad family allowed people to see the culture, the society, and the economy of the Great Depression and how its effects it had on their lives.
Since the Dust Bowl brought about many poor conditions, the Joad family was forced off of their land, and made the decision to move out to the west. During this hard time, the family chose to turn to one another and be each other’s encouragement because they had lost all faith in everything else. On the way to California, the narrator gives background information of the family of twelve. They end with the question “how can such courage be, and such faith in their own species?”.
Religion played an important part in the book, but due to their circumstances, the Joad family had very little faith left and leaned into each other rather than a higher being. Not only were the Joad’s dependent on their own family, but they were dependent on other families they met along the way. Their travels allowed these migrant workers to form a certain relationship with one another because they all understood what they were going through. The narrator states, “in the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family. The children were the children of all”. Families came together during this time and encouraged one another to not lose hope. They all had so much faith in one another which reflects the society of the migrant workers during the Great Depression and proves they had nothing left except the trust they found in one another.
One of the many tragedies experienced in the book was death and sickness because of the environmental circumstances. Having to drive to California from Oklahoma in this environment took a major toll on the Joad family. During their travels, Grandpa Joad got really sick and could no longer breathe due to chocking on his own tongue. Reverend Casy prayed over him, but Grandpa Joad ends having a stroke and passing away. Factors such as dehydration and exhaustion brought about from traveling caused a lot of pain and even death to families during the Great Migration. Another important factor that caused pain into the family was stress due to the immense amount of discrimination and the constant fear of not knowing. For example, when Rose of Sharon gave birth to a still born child. While talking to Uncle John, Mrs. Wainwright stated that the baby never breathed and was never alive. Babies are supposed to represent new life and bring about joy, but because of the unbearable amounts of stress, Rose of Sharon and her family did not get to experience this joy. The Great Depression was a very emotional time for the immigrant’s society because of how they were treated and the long journey they were forced to travel.
Another tragedy the migrant farmers faced on the daily was violence and theft. Since they had nothing, it was very common for people to steal. In California, “men crowded the alleys behind the stores to beg for bread, to beg for rotting vegetables, to steal when they could”. People were begging for food and even stealing since they had no way of making money. The Dust Bowl caused an outbreak of violence in the state since these migrant workers trying to provide for their family. Although stealing was normal, Tom Joad was filled with anger due to everything him and he had been through. While Reverend Casy was peacefully protesting in California, one cop hit him across the head with a pickaxe, which caused Tom to go into a rage of violence. There he beats the police officer with a pickaxe and kills him. Tom turned to violence in order to express how he was feeling, which is what everyone did during this time. Violence was a common component in the culture of the Great Depression because everyone was lost and confused and no longer knew how to express their anger.
The good news of the west coast spread fast and influenced the Joad family to pack up and leave. They went to a new state that they knew nothing about and thought they would be given the chance to start over. Once they got there, they sadly realized everything was not what it seemed. The narrator describes the overall feeling of the state by saying, “there is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize”. Life out in the West was supposed to be a new opportunity, but instead, made their lives even more miserable. Here, the Oklahoma farmers faced discrimination from people and were treated unfairly just because they were migrant workers. The economic situation during this time period was supposed to improve if you lived in the West, but that is not the case. The banks took away their land, left them with nothing, and these migrants were not even guaranteed a job. These farmers picked up their whole lives in hopes to find a better one out West but realized shortly after their lives were not going to become any easier.
One of the harsh conditions the Joad family was forced into was how they lived. Since the bank had taken their land, they were forced to live in the car during their travels. They would travel during daylight and rest during the nighttime and, “the highway became their home and movement their medium of expression”. Not only did they have to sleep in the cars, but when the car would break down, they would have to repair it. The Dust Bowl forced families into having to live their lives traveling and, on the road, constantly. In order to make money, the banks would take away these people’s homes with no remorse, which reflects how power-hungry banks were during this time.
Another problem people often faced during the Great Depression was living inside a shantytown. In the book, the Joad’s lived in Hooverville’s, which is described as a town laid close to water which included house made of tents, weed-thatched enclosures, paper houses, and was a pile of junk[footnoteRef:9]. This surrounding made living a challenge and showed how many farmers had lost everything due to the drop in the agricultural economy.
Not only were living condition’s a problem, but another common obstacle portrayed throughout the book was natural disasters. In the beginning, the dust storm is what pushed the family out west. The narrator described a specific setting in the Oklahoma plains by stating, “houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air”. People were doing everything they could in their power to keep the dust from ruining everything, but nothing was working. Farmers knew because of the collapsing economy of the Great Depression that they would have to relocate in order to keep a steady flowing income. Not only is the dust a problem, but the Joad family also struggled through a flood with one another once in California. While Rose of Sharon was giving birth, a great flood came and drenched the land. After the flood, they realized once again, they would be out of work. The weather not only caused the move out to California, but it also ruined their future plans once they got out there.
The Grapes of Wrath allowed people to understand the struggles farmers faced from their point of view. They lost their land, money, family members, and faith along the way. They had to move, face harsh circumstances, and learn to survive with what they had. Migrant workers took a huge risk by moving out west and faced discrimination and inequality once they arrived. From this novel, people are now able to understand how mentally unstable and emotional this culture was. The Great Depression was a hard time for migrant workers due to how society treated them. The economy was very unpredictable which caused actions to be driven by fear, but not everybody had to face what the farmers had to go through. The Dust Bowl was the most catastrophic event during that Great Depression because not only did it affect the economy, society, and culture, but it majorly impacted people’s lives and forced them to work with what they were given.
