John Steinbeck wasborn in Salinas, California, on February 27, 1902.He attended Stanford University without graduating, and though helived briefly in New York, he remained a lifelong Californian. Steinbeckbegan writing novels in 1929, but he garneredlittle commercial or critical success until the publication of TortillaFlat in 1935. Steinbeck frequentlyused his fiction to delve into the lives of society’s most downtroddencitizens. A trio of novels in the late 1930sfocused on the lives of migrant workers in California: InDubious Battle, published in 1936,was followed by Of Mice and Men in 1937,and, in 1939, Steinbeck’s masterpiece, TheGrapes of Wrath.
During the early 1930s, a severedrought led to massive agricultural failure in parts of the southernGreat Plains, particularly throughout western Oklahoma and the Texaspanhandle. These areas had been heavily overcultivated by wheatfarmers in the years following World War I and were covered withmillions of acres of loose, exposed topsoil. In the absence of rain,crops withered and died; the topsoil, no longer anchored by growingroots, was picked up by the winds and carried in billowing cloudsacross the region. Huge dust storms blew across the area, at timesblocking out the sun and even suffocating those unlucky enough tobe caught unprepared. The afflicted region became known as the “DustBowl.”
By the mid-1930s, the drought hadcrippled countless farm families, and America had fallen into theGreat Depression. Unable to pay their mortgages or invest in thekinds of industrial equipment now necessitated by commercial competition,many Dust Bowl farmers were forced to leave their land. Withoutany real employment prospects, thousands of families nonethelesstraveled to California in hopes of finding new means of survival.But the farm country of California quickly became overcrowded withthe migrant workers. Jobs and food were scarce, and the migrantsfaced prejudice and hostility from the Californians, who labeledthem with the derisive epithet “Okie.” These workers and their families livedin cramped, impoverished camps called “Hoovervilles,” named afterPresident Hoover, who was blamed for the problems that led to theGreat Depression. Many of the residents of these camps starvedto death, unable to find work.
When Steinbeck decided to write a novel about the plightof migrant farm workers, he took his task very seriously. To prepare, helived with an Oklahoma farm family and made the journey with themto California. When The Grapes of Wrath appeared,it soared to the top of the bestseller lists, selling nearly halfa million copies. Although many Oklahomans and Californians reviledthe book, considering Steinbeck’s characters to be unflatteringrepresentations of their states’ people, the large majority of readersand scholars praised the novel highly. The story of the Joad familycaptured a turbulent moment in American history and, in the wordsof critic Robert DeMott, “entered both the American consciousnessand conscience.” In 1940, the novel was awardedthe Pulitzer Prize and adapted to the screen. Although Steinbeckwent on to have a productive literary career and won the Nobel Prizefor Literature in 1962, none of his laterbooks had the impact of The Grapes of Wrath. Hedied in 1968.
Today, readers of The Grapes of Wrath oftenfind fault with its excessive sentimentality and generally flatcharacterizations, which seem at odds with Steinbeck’s otherwiserealistic style of writing. However, in writing his novel, Steinbeckattempted not only to describe the plight of migrant workers duringthe Depression but also to offer a pointed criticism of the policiesthat had caused that plight. In light of this goal, Steinbeck’scharacters often emerge as idealized archetypes or epic heroes;rather than using them to explore the individual human psyche, theauthor presents them as embodiments of universal ideals or struggles.Thus, the novel stands as a chronicle of the Depression and as acommentary on the economic and social system that gave rise to it.
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