History Of John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

Grapes of Wrath History John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in response to the life of the people that lived in Oklahoma and traveled west to California. This book, which was written during the end of the dirty thirties, is filled with anger and hatred related to the dust bowl and the great depression times. Steinbeck strived for this novel to be his best he had ever written. He spent months researching how the people were treated during these times in order to enhance the emotions of the times. He desired to make sure that every detail he put in the book was true and relatable to the times. Steinbeck went to California in the late 1930’s. While he was there he decided to write this novel about the dust bowl and great depression
migrants, and it remains an accurate description of great depression migrants who found themselves without options and opportunity, which caught the attention of many people. The Great Depression caused many people to lose their jobs in Northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.
Due to the loss of jobs people were forced to migrate west to California. It became very difficult for many migrants to find jobs and even places to live. They were paid little to nothing in wages, and were being watched and controlled in all the camps. If the people did anything wrong at these camps they were hurt by the men who policed the area. Steinbeck wanted to write this book because he wanted to show how the people coped with their troubles on their travels. For example, in the book a family moved from camp to camp just because they could not afford to live the camps due to the lack of
jobs. In the article, “Steinbeck’s Use of Nonfiction Sources in The Grapes of Wrath,” Steinbeck states “I tried to write this book the way lives are being lived not the way books are written.” I believe this to mean he really wanted to capture the lives of the migrant people in full detail to explain to the reader exactly how it would have felt to live during these trying times. Steinbeck characters, in his book, were people he personally interviewed in the migrant camps located in California after they experienced struggles from the Great Depression. He wanted to make this book as realistic as possible, and give the reader a sense of what it was like to live during that time in the camps. In a report from Brian Naylor, Steinbeck says, “I feel good when I am doing it and better than when I am not. I find joy in the texture and tone and rhythm of words and sentences.” He found it very personally satisfying writing this book and he wrote it from the heart. Steinbeck disliked how the migrant people who moved to California were treated. Many people could not find jobs; therefore, they did not have money to pay for somewhere to live. John Steinbeck’s goal for The Grapes of Wrath was “to rip the reader’s nerves to rags.” His main motivation to write this book was to show how badly all the people going West were treated by the banks and businesses. They were treated very violently and cruel, and most of the people were left homeless and hungry. The Joads family is described in Steinbeck’s book as one of the families who struggled. They were forced to move from their home in Oklahoma and become migrant workers in California. Steinbeck combined all the stories of the people he interviewed, and he turned it into one story. His goal was “to find a common ground between the observable natural world and the worlds of myth and mysticism,” as reported in the article, “John Steinbeck’s Bitter Fruit.” This meant he wanted to get different views of many people. His book was created with all the opinions and experiences of many migrant people. The Grapes of Wrath was read all over the world.
It received both good and bad attention. Some of the readers in general, misinterpreted what they read and took offense to the book. Certain people thought they were being accused of the things that happened to the migrant families, and they thought he exaggerated the conditions of the migrant camps. Other people felt like they were being attacked by the book. Many critics questioned the accuracy, decency, and politics in the book. The Oklahoma’s U.S. Representative Lyle Boren said that the novel was “a lie, a black, infernal creation of a twisted, distorted mind” in the Congressional Record. Not everyone took offense to the book, though. Peter Munro Jack of the New York Times Book Review said, “It is a long and thoughtful novel as one thinks about it. It is a short and vivid scene as one feels.” This book even inspired other authors, for example, T.C. Boyle wrote a book called The Tortilla Curtain in 1995, this book focused of the Mexican immigrants rather than the Dust Bowl migrant workers. In the article entitled, “National Endowment for the Arts,” Eleanor Roosevelt said the novel both repels and attracts you because of the horrible pictures it gives you, and yet you cannot stop reading it. This book had a huge effect on a mass of
people. The Grapes of Wrath influenced many people in the world and really captured the lives of the migrant people during the time of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression times. The specific details and vivid pictures created an interesting book. John Steinbeck worked very hard on this book and he used every interview and every bit of research he found to create this work of art. His anger towards the treatment of the migrant people made the book very passionate and realistic, receiving all kinds of attention.

Works Cited
Bragg, Melvyn. “John Steinbeck’s Bitter Fruit.” Guardian
News. 21 Nov. 2011. n.pag. 1-6. Web. 6 May 2013.
“Effects.” angelfire.com. n.d. n.pag. 1-2. Web. 6 May 2013.
“The Grapes of Wrath.” npr.org. 25 Feb. 2002. n.pag. 1-3.
Web. 6 May 2013.
“The Grapes of Wrath.” okstate.edu. n.d. n.pag. 1-4. Web. 6 May 2013.
“Historical Background.” University of Southern Queensland. n.d. n.pag. 1. Web. 5 May 2013.
“National Endowment for the Arts.” The Big Read. n.d.
n.pag. 1-3. Web. 6 May 2013.
“Steinbeck’s Use of Nonfiction Sources in The Grapes of
Wrath.” edsitement.neh.gov. n.d. n.pag. 1. Web. 6 May.
2013.