Use Of Propaganda In John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

Propaganda is any information that is biased or misleading to make a person or persons think a certain way, popularize a certain point of view. Such propaganda is popular to be used in wars and times of conflict. John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, while not misleading, can be characterized as social propaganda through its biased look at those struggling in the intercalary chapters and in the Joad’s life. In the intercalary chapters of Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck focuses mainly on the struggles of all the farmers as a whole group, the first use of propaganda. The first chapter begins painting the picture of the struggles Americans begin to face, “The surface of the earth crusted, a thin hard crust, and as the sky became pale, so the earth became pale, pink in the red country and white in the gray country” (Steinbeck 1). The land turned into a desolate wasteland, unable to bear fruit, any sign of life was gone. The people unable to payback their loans had their homes taken from them, taken as payment by the banks. A strong piece of propaganda was the bankers, how they were shown as monsters, “The monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die,” (Steinbeck 32 ). This shows how the banks and companies were creatures with no feelings at all. It painted all banks in a very bad way, Steinbeck wanted to make the people of America believe that they didn’t care at all. Also, by giving the banks a bad image it also could give the government a bad image. This novel never showed the government stepping in a giving those trying to find work
In this way, the novel is very biased and shows how the government did not help its people but make their lives harder. And the novel also showed that the only kindness people with nothing were shown were from those that also had