The Grapes Of Wrath By John Steinbeck - 1190 Words

The Grapes of Wrath April 14th, 1939, John Steinbeck published the novel, The Grapes of Wrath. The novel became an immediate best seller, with selling over 428,900 copies. Steinbeck, who lived through both the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, sought to bring attention to how families of Oklahoma outdid these disasters. Steinbeck focuses on families of Oklahoma, including the Joads family, who reside on a farm. The Joad family is tested with hardship when life for them on their farm takes a corrupt turn. Steinbeck symbolizes the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, as the monster, by focusing on bringing attention to how the families in Oklahoma bypass the disastorous weather, greedy bankers, and also the unreceptive greeting by the†¦show more content†¦People of Oklahoma are lucky to escape the grasp of Valley Fever, a plague the Dust Bowl is notorious for. As for families and their farms, the livestock would suffocate from the blowing dust. Corn stocks are blown over and have the covering of ti ny golden nuggets, draining any means of life. Oklahoma life was growing to be unfathomable for the Joads. Farmers remain reluctant to make profit on their land, and put all their finances into it. Steinbeck describes the farmers to put â€Å"blood, sweat, and tears into the land.† (31). Farmers were in debt to the corn, in order to be able to live on the farm. In an effort to save the farms, landowners begin planting cotton instead of corn, even though cotton is water hungry, and will drain what water is left in the soil, As Jennier Vanburen stats from her article in Demand Media. Only one of the crops are able to grow amidst the dust, that it cotton. Steinbeck presents that all the farmers have the knowledge that cotton would swallow their farm land dry. With the nature’s unstable wind,dust tearing the fertile land, and unstable funds. The monster is the symbolization to describe the affects of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl on the people of Oklahoma. Another way Steinbeck symbolizes the monster through the Great Depression and Dust bowl are the greedy bankers. With the country in recession, due to the Great Depression, the banks try to sustain profability by making prices