Okies Road Analysis
The Okies Road: Not One of Opportunity, But One of Unification When economic troubles occur, as they did during the Great Depression, countless people are impacted. People lost their entire way of life during this unfortunate time period. The demographic that was impacted the worst were arguably the so-called Okies. Okies was a derogatory name bestowed upon the migrant farmers who left Oklahoma and the surrounding states during the Dust Bowl for California in their quest to regain and better their lives. Their constant search highlighted their determination, which was one of the group’s brightest qualities as a whole. Woody Guthrie, a former Okie himself, produced multiple songs pertaining to the Okies and the obstacles they had to overcome.
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One that stands out is Dust Bowl Refugee. Throughout this song, not only does Guthrie emphasize and imply several characteristics of the Okies, but he does the same with Route 66, the historic landmark road which the Okies utilized to complete their journey west. Although Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Refuge and other academic sources argue that Route 66 separated the rich from the poor, the road also brought the migrant farmers together and gave them a channel through which to unite. Guthrie was an Okie himself, so Dust Bowl Refugee is written from a first-hand perspective. One of the disadvantages that he repeatedly states or implies is the fact that these migrant farmers are refugees who have been removed from their homeland. “We are ramblers, so they say, we are only here today, then we travel with the seasons, we’re the dust bowl refugees,” is a verse that has resounding implications. He continues, “And the highway that’s our home,” admitting that if the Okies were to call any place their home, it would be a road, which is typically used as a channel of transportation to get from one point to another, not as a permanent residence. According to one of her articles in the Journal of Cultural Geography, Toni Alexander contributes this to the fact that the only labor needed was of the temporary seasonal variety. As she declares, “[California’s] vegetable and fruit crops demanded large pools of seasonal manual labor that Okie migrants could more than adequately supply” (Alexander). The Okies only option after migrating out west was to become seasonal farmers, despite the poor economic reward. As cheap seasonal farmers, these Okies would not be self-sufficient, but would rather be working for large, industrial farms. In his Wilson Quarterly article, Charles Shindo describes that the allure of California was not solely due to that particular state having a larger job market and more fertile soil combined with the absence of a dust bowl. Rather, the allure of migrating originated in Oklahoma itself. Large, industrial farms began to take over and remove the family farmer. Shindo writes, “The farm folk were being driven off the land by manmade forces, not just natural ones such as drought. Mechanization had made tenant farming and sharecropping in the South even more economically marginal than they had been... Just as industrialization had long before stripped the urban artisan of his independence, now it was dispossessing the small farmer.” According to a U.S. House of Representatives report commissioned in 1941, “farm mechanization and enlarged farm size played the most significant role in the displacement of population from the Western South” (Alexander). Once they arrived in California, the Okies discovered the process of industrialization even more developed, and the only available work was cheap and seasonal. As a result, the Okies were forced to follow the curves and bends of the highway in search for constant, yet not stable, employment. When Guthrie laments that the highway is the Okies only home, he is correct. Not only did they get removed from their original homeland and the area that they knew and called home, but the same forces that pushed them away then prevented them from finding a constant source of labor in their new home. Once in California, the Okies worked for the large industrial farms because it was a last resort.
Guthrie’s word choice implies a separation was evident between the rich farm owners and these poor migrant farmers. He writes the song from a first-person tone, and his word choice implies the different factions. Throughout the duration of the song, he says “we” on eight occasions and “our” an additional two. This puts the large group of Okies into one large, cohesive group. On the other hand, he states, “your crops and in your fruit,” directing this line to the wealthy land owners. Guthrie sees economic and class differences as the main divide among the population of California. The fact that he says “your” is important because it gives the farm owners an upper hand in the social hierarchy. The have ownership of the goods, and the Okies are just stopgap workers who are used as a means of production. The Okies could only hope to achieve this level of property, and they migrated to California with these hopes in mind. As Shindo writes, “The Okie migrants came to California in belief that after working in the fields as wage laborers for a season or two, they would be able to afford a down payment on a piece of land… They ‘wanted fiercely to resettle on property of their own,’ sociologist Lillian Criesler wrote in 1940.” These aspirations were virtually impossible, as individual family farms had no chance to compete with the industrial farms, as was evidenced by what happened …show more content…
earlier in Oklahoma. Guthrie implies a divide based on economic differences, and as evidence proves, ownership of the land and crops was the basis for this divide. The “us vs.
them” was also a result of discriminatory attitudes towards the Okies by the Californians. Alexander writes, “Whereas earlier groups could afford to relocate and thus were perceived to have been expanding westward with the rest of the country, the Okies of the 1930s were often characterized by Californians as poor whites who were pushed by economic desperation from their home states.” This perception combined with the commercialization, which as mentioned before forced the Okies to be replaceable seasonal laborers, to ruin any economic desires of the Okies and to make them the bottom of the social ladder (Alexander). This is perhaps why Guthrie complains, “Hard, it’s always been that way,” in addition to the fact that, “this old world is a hard world for a dust bowl refugee.” Guthrie and other Okies were subject to prejudice by the Californians, which made any progress an uphill
battle. Despite having an attitude of “us vs. them” towards the wealthy landowners according to Guthrie, the Okies helped them when dealing with issues stemming from other poor demographics. For example, “in the struggles that took place between striking workers and employers in California, migrants more often sided with employers and served as strikebreakers” (Shindo). Shindo points to the social values of the Okies, who came from a conservative rural background, as the reason of this alliance. Okies were even opposed to the massive programs included in the New Deal designed to assist them in the recovery process because of a lack of dignity associated with taking relief (Shindo). Shindo continues on, pointing to John Steinbeck and his belief that, “Their failure to understand the new industrialized corporate state was a more fundamental cause of their plight than transitory natural forces such as drought.” Guthrie proclaims that it is a never-ending highway, but if Steinbeck is to be believed, it is not all the Californians doing, and one can make the argument that the Okies had more to do with the continuous disadvantages they faced than any other factor. While the argument that acting as strikebreakers only hurt the Okies, it was also a statement to their perseverance. Guthrie uses strong imagery of Okies traveling “down that mountain and ‘cross the desert” to get to their destination to illustrate his belief that the Okies were strong-willed and determined. An overall underlying message that is present in this song is the strength of the Okies. They work through awful conditions and instead of giving up, just wander and work “like whirlwinds in the desert.” James Gregory wrote that the Okies “were populists who believed in ‘the dignity of hard work and plain living and promised deliverance from the forces of power, privilege, and moral pollution, near and far’” (Shindo). They believed that the only way to get through the tough times was to work twice as hard. Instead of caving in to the plethora of factors working against them, the Okies just continued to migrate in search of work. The whole migration to California was in the hope of bettering their life after it was ruined by industrialization and drought. They were willing to relocate their whole life in search for a better opportunity. Despite further separating the Okies from the wealthy Californians, Route 66 was used by the Okies in hopes of being a road of opportunity, and it is admirable how willing they were to migrate in a quest of a better life. One of the most famous photos of all-time is the Migrant Mother, shot by Dorothy Lange. Many are unaware of the background of the characters present in that photo, but as the woman’s grandson presents, it is the visual representation of “the story of a woman who ‘never’ gave up hope for the future, who overcame whatever the world tossed in her path” (Alexander). Guthrie was proud of the lengths of the world which the Okies were able to travel in their journeys, which were fueled by hope for the future, be it traveling “’cross the mountain and to the sea” or “down that mountain, ‘cross the desert.” These landforms are not a walk in the park to get over, but that is what made the Okies’ journey that much more impressive.
The Okies prided themselves on the sense of community and family, and these were important to the growth and progress of the group. As mentioned before, they developed an “us vs. them” mentality against the Californians. But it did not stop there. Guthrie warns “’Cross the mountain to the sea, here come the wife and kids and me.” Also, as the song title says, Guthrie viewed himself as a dust bowl refugee. While he was not content with the economic implications of this, alluding to the perpetual need to move in search of cheap work, he prided himself and the other Okies on persevering through the “hot old dusty… never-ending highway.” Guthrie utters the phrase “dust bowl refugee” ten times throughout the song. One does not do that unless he is proud of what it means. In terms of the community, he talks about coming with his family, and also groups the Okies as one, affirming “We’re the dust bowl refugees” during the song. There is a unity among the Okies and they were able to stick it out together. Ken Kesey, also an Okie, wrote a poem describing that, “... Being an Oakie means getting rooted out of an area and having to hustle for a toehold in some new area ... Being an Oakie is a low-rent, aggravating drag, but it does Learn you some essentials... essentials like it isn 't a new car That pulls over the help you when you are broke down… it is somebody who knows what it is To be broke down with a hurt machine” (Alexander). The Okies constantly help each other out and understand what the other person is going through, and there is a sense of duty to help the other through their tough time because that person is going to help you somewhere down the road. This sense of community was crucial to the development of a thriving subculture which has persevered through time. Guthrie talks about being a dust bowl refugee, and he mentions “we” eight times, as mentioned earlier. That is important because the migrant farmers identify with the group, which is helpful and removes any ego involved. The Okies are for the progress of the group, not just the individual. They were forced to live in camps together, but this only made them closer. One Okie child remembered, “once you were told a 'back home ' story, it was like gaining acceptance into an exclusive club ... everyone knew that we had gone from good times in some state to the east, to despair living in tents or their cars in California” (Alexander). There was a sense of belongingness among the Okies. As the Okies’ economic situation grew brighter and eventually they were assimilated into society as equals, these camps evolved into strong communities which shared a sense of pride and continued to help each other. Guthrie wrote about the beginnings of this communal pride when he classified the Okies as dust bowl refugees and as ramblers. Dust Bowl Refugee is a musical representation of the pride and sense of community that characterized the Okies. In modern America, the road is seen as a place to get from one place to another. It is seen as a channel in which to travel and get from a place of origin to a destination. To the Okies of the 1930s, however, the road was their home. They were forced off their homeland by human and natural forces, industrialization and drought. They saw Route 66 and the journey west as one of opportunity, but once the journey was completed, it was realized that all the road did was further separate the poor from the rich in terms of economic hierarchy. The wealthy landowners continued to hire the cheapest labor, and they had an abundance of potential laborers of which to replace their current ones with. Despite the continuing prejudice and lack of initial progress, the Okies continued to work hard, believing that it would lead to prosperity in the end. And not only did they work as a group, but they identified with the group. Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Refugee alludes to the Okies sense of living and what they had to deal with. However, despite the problems highlighted by Guthrie, he identified with the group and continued the fight towards progress. During the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, roads, such as Route 66, were not the roads of opportunity which they were advertised to be. However, while not helping poor, migrant farmers economically, it did provide them with a sense of pride and perseverance, and this led to a strong sense of community which continues to characterize the Okies to this day.
Works Cited
. Alexander, Toni. " 'Welcome To Old Times ': Inserting the Okie Past Into California 's San Joaquin Valley Present." Journal of Cultural Geography 26.1 (2009): 71+. Academic OneFile. Web. 03 Oct. 2013. .
“Dust Bowl Refugee: Words and Music by Woody Guthrie.” The Official Woody Guthrie
Website. Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. Web. 18 Sept 2013.
Guthrie, Woody. “Dust Bowl Refugee—Woody Guthrie.” Online video clip. YouTube.
YouTube, 05 Dec 2008. Web. 18 Sept 2013
Shindo, Charles J. “The Dust Bowl Myth.” Wilson Quarterly: Vol. 24, Issue 4. Autumn 2000.
Points of View Reference Center. Web. 17 Oct 2013.
One that stands out is Dust Bowl Refugee. Throughout this song, not only does Guthrie emphasize and imply several characteristics of the Okies, but he does the same with Route 66, the historic landmark road which the Okies utilized to complete their journey west. Although Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Refuge and other academic sources argue that Route 66 separated the rich from the poor, the road also brought the migrant farmers together and gave them a channel through which to unite. Guthrie was an Okie himself, so Dust Bowl Refugee is written from a first-hand perspective. One of the disadvantages that he repeatedly states or implies is the fact that these migrant farmers are refugees who have been removed from their homeland. “We are ramblers, so they say, we are only here today, then we travel with the seasons, we’re the dust bowl refugees,” is a verse that has resounding implications. He continues, “And the highway that’s our home,” admitting that if the Okies were to call any place their home, it would be a road, which is typically used as a channel of transportation to get from one point to another, not as a permanent residence. According to one of her articles in the Journal of Cultural Geography, Toni Alexander contributes this to the fact that the only labor needed was of the temporary seasonal variety. As she declares, “[California’s] vegetable and fruit crops demanded large pools of seasonal manual labor that Okie migrants could more than adequately supply” (Alexander). The Okies only option after migrating out west was to become seasonal farmers, despite the poor economic reward. As cheap seasonal farmers, these Okies would not be self-sufficient, but would rather be working for large, industrial farms. In his Wilson Quarterly article, Charles Shindo describes that the allure of California was not solely due to that particular state having a larger job market and more fertile soil combined with the absence of a dust bowl. Rather, the allure of migrating originated in Oklahoma itself. Large, industrial farms began to take over and remove the family farmer. Shindo writes, “The farm folk were being driven off the land by manmade forces, not just natural ones such as drought. Mechanization had made tenant farming and sharecropping in the South even more economically marginal than they had been... Just as industrialization had long before stripped the urban artisan of his independence, now it was dispossessing the small farmer.” According to a U.S. House of Representatives report commissioned in 1941, “farm mechanization and enlarged farm size played the most significant role in the displacement of population from the Western South” (Alexander). Once they arrived in California, the Okies discovered the process of industrialization even more developed, and the only available work was cheap and seasonal. As a result, the Okies were forced to follow the curves and bends of the highway in search for constant, yet not stable, employment. When Guthrie laments that the highway is the Okies only home, he is correct. Not only did they get removed from their original homeland and the area that they knew and called home, but the same forces that pushed them away then prevented them from finding a constant source of labor in their new home. Once in California, the Okies worked for the large industrial farms because it was a last resort.
Guthrie’s word choice implies a separation was evident between the rich farm owners and these poor migrant farmers. He writes the song from a first-person tone, and his word choice implies the different factions. Throughout the duration of the song, he says “we” on eight occasions and “our” an additional two. This puts the large group of Okies into one large, cohesive group. On the other hand, he states, “your crops and in your fruit,” directing this line to the wealthy land owners. Guthrie sees economic and class differences as the main divide among the population of California. The fact that he says “your” is important because it gives the farm owners an upper hand in the social hierarchy. The have ownership of the goods, and the Okies are just stopgap workers who are used as a means of production. The Okies could only hope to achieve this level of property, and they migrated to California with these hopes in mind. As Shindo writes, “The Okie migrants came to California in belief that after working in the fields as wage laborers for a season or two, they would be able to afford a down payment on a piece of land… They ‘wanted fiercely to resettle on property of their own,’ sociologist Lillian Criesler wrote in 1940.” These aspirations were virtually impossible, as individual family farms had no chance to compete with the industrial farms, as was evidenced by what happened …show more content…
earlier in Oklahoma. Guthrie implies a divide based on economic differences, and as evidence proves, ownership of the land and crops was the basis for this divide. The “us vs.
them” was also a result of discriminatory attitudes towards the Okies by the Californians. Alexander writes, “Whereas earlier groups could afford to relocate and thus were perceived to have been expanding westward with the rest of the country, the Okies of the 1930s were often characterized by Californians as poor whites who were pushed by economic desperation from their home states.” This perception combined with the commercialization, which as mentioned before forced the Okies to be replaceable seasonal laborers, to ruin any economic desires of the Okies and to make them the bottom of the social ladder (Alexander). This is perhaps why Guthrie complains, “Hard, it’s always been that way,” in addition to the fact that, “this old world is a hard world for a dust bowl refugee.” Guthrie and other Okies were subject to prejudice by the Californians, which made any progress an uphill
battle. Despite having an attitude of “us vs. them” towards the wealthy landowners according to Guthrie, the Okies helped them when dealing with issues stemming from other poor demographics. For example, “in the struggles that took place between striking workers and employers in California, migrants more often sided with employers and served as strikebreakers” (Shindo). Shindo points to the social values of the Okies, who came from a conservative rural background, as the reason of this alliance. Okies were even opposed to the massive programs included in the New Deal designed to assist them in the recovery process because of a lack of dignity associated with taking relief (Shindo). Shindo continues on, pointing to John Steinbeck and his belief that, “Their failure to understand the new industrialized corporate state was a more fundamental cause of their plight than transitory natural forces such as drought.” Guthrie proclaims that it is a never-ending highway, but if Steinbeck is to be believed, it is not all the Californians doing, and one can make the argument that the Okies had more to do with the continuous disadvantages they faced than any other factor. While the argument that acting as strikebreakers only hurt the Okies, it was also a statement to their perseverance. Guthrie uses strong imagery of Okies traveling “down that mountain and ‘cross the desert” to get to their destination to illustrate his belief that the Okies were strong-willed and determined. An overall underlying message that is present in this song is the strength of the Okies. They work through awful conditions and instead of giving up, just wander and work “like whirlwinds in the desert.” James Gregory wrote that the Okies “were populists who believed in ‘the dignity of hard work and plain living and promised deliverance from the forces of power, privilege, and moral pollution, near and far’” (Shindo). They believed that the only way to get through the tough times was to work twice as hard. Instead of caving in to the plethora of factors working against them, the Okies just continued to migrate in search of work. The whole migration to California was in the hope of bettering their life after it was ruined by industrialization and drought. They were willing to relocate their whole life in search for a better opportunity. Despite further separating the Okies from the wealthy Californians, Route 66 was used by the Okies in hopes of being a road of opportunity, and it is admirable how willing they were to migrate in a quest of a better life. One of the most famous photos of all-time is the Migrant Mother, shot by Dorothy Lange. Many are unaware of the background of the characters present in that photo, but as the woman’s grandson presents, it is the visual representation of “the story of a woman who ‘never’ gave up hope for the future, who overcame whatever the world tossed in her path” (Alexander). Guthrie was proud of the lengths of the world which the Okies were able to travel in their journeys, which were fueled by hope for the future, be it traveling “’cross the mountain and to the sea” or “down that mountain, ‘cross the desert.” These landforms are not a walk in the park to get over, but that is what made the Okies’ journey that much more impressive.
The Okies prided themselves on the sense of community and family, and these were important to the growth and progress of the group. As mentioned before, they developed an “us vs. them” mentality against the Californians. But it did not stop there. Guthrie warns “’Cross the mountain to the sea, here come the wife and kids and me.” Also, as the song title says, Guthrie viewed himself as a dust bowl refugee. While he was not content with the economic implications of this, alluding to the perpetual need to move in search of cheap work, he prided himself and the other Okies on persevering through the “hot old dusty… never-ending highway.” Guthrie utters the phrase “dust bowl refugee” ten times throughout the song. One does not do that unless he is proud of what it means. In terms of the community, he talks about coming with his family, and also groups the Okies as one, affirming “We’re the dust bowl refugees” during the song. There is a unity among the Okies and they were able to stick it out together. Ken Kesey, also an Okie, wrote a poem describing that, “... Being an Oakie means getting rooted out of an area and having to hustle for a toehold in some new area ... Being an Oakie is a low-rent, aggravating drag, but it does Learn you some essentials... essentials like it isn 't a new car That pulls over the help you when you are broke down… it is somebody who knows what it is To be broke down with a hurt machine” (Alexander). The Okies constantly help each other out and understand what the other person is going through, and there is a sense of duty to help the other through their tough time because that person is going to help you somewhere down the road. This sense of community was crucial to the development of a thriving subculture which has persevered through time. Guthrie talks about being a dust bowl refugee, and he mentions “we” eight times, as mentioned earlier. That is important because the migrant farmers identify with the group, which is helpful and removes any ego involved. The Okies are for the progress of the group, not just the individual. They were forced to live in camps together, but this only made them closer. One Okie child remembered, “once you were told a 'back home ' story, it was like gaining acceptance into an exclusive club ... everyone knew that we had gone from good times in some state to the east, to despair living in tents or their cars in California” (Alexander). There was a sense of belongingness among the Okies. As the Okies’ economic situation grew brighter and eventually they were assimilated into society as equals, these camps evolved into strong communities which shared a sense of pride and continued to help each other. Guthrie wrote about the beginnings of this communal pride when he classified the Okies as dust bowl refugees and as ramblers. Dust Bowl Refugee is a musical representation of the pride and sense of community that characterized the Okies. In modern America, the road is seen as a place to get from one place to another. It is seen as a channel in which to travel and get from a place of origin to a destination. To the Okies of the 1930s, however, the road was their home. They were forced off their homeland by human and natural forces, industrialization and drought. They saw Route 66 and the journey west as one of opportunity, but once the journey was completed, it was realized that all the road did was further separate the poor from the rich in terms of economic hierarchy. The wealthy landowners continued to hire the cheapest labor, and they had an abundance of potential laborers of which to replace their current ones with. Despite the continuing prejudice and lack of initial progress, the Okies continued to work hard, believing that it would lead to prosperity in the end. And not only did they work as a group, but they identified with the group. Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Refugee alludes to the Okies sense of living and what they had to deal with. However, despite the problems highlighted by Guthrie, he identified with the group and continued the fight towards progress. During the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, roads, such as Route 66, were not the roads of opportunity which they were advertised to be. However, while not helping poor, migrant farmers economically, it did provide them with a sense of pride and perseverance, and this led to a strong sense of community which continues to characterize the Okies to this day.
Works Cited
. Alexander, Toni. " 'Welcome To Old Times ': Inserting the Okie Past Into California 's San Joaquin Valley Present." Journal of Cultural Geography 26.1 (2009): 71+. Academic OneFile. Web. 03 Oct. 2013. .
“Dust Bowl Refugee: Words and Music by Woody Guthrie.” The Official Woody Guthrie
Website. Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. Web. 18 Sept 2013.
Guthrie, Woody. “Dust Bowl Refugee—Woody Guthrie.” Online video clip. YouTube.
YouTube, 05 Dec 2008. Web. 18 Sept 2013
Shindo, Charles J. “The Dust Bowl Myth.” Wilson Quarterly: Vol. 24, Issue 4. Autumn 2000.
Points of View Reference Center. Web. 17 Oct 2013.