Grapes of Wrath-Q. 5

During Grapes of Wrath, many people were struggling financially. This was the first clue in finding out the time period. Once it mentioned the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, I knew what to search for to find it more accurately. The book was written right after these tragic events and is a story about what many families went through.

The Great Depression came from the huge stock market crash in the 1930's which was caused by all of the investors selling their stock, scared of what might happen to the market. Since everyone was selling and no one was buying, the country was out of money and it caused everyone to struggle financially. During the days when no one had any money it was considered the Great Depression because everyone was poor and many people were starving to death. I found it very interesting that Steinbeck would write a book right after he himself had gone through the Great Depression. I would think that going through it once would be enough.

When writing a book you are constantly thinking about ideas for your next chapters, but when you are writing about something that happened in history you constantly think about what went on during that time and how hard it was for the people. The benefit to Steinbeck writing this book is that he went through it and who is better fit to write a book about the Great Depression than someone who experienced it first hand. Using the Joad's as a common everyday farming family that was affected by the depression was very effective in the story. Once major symbolic event was the Joad's journey to California in search of jobs and a better life. It symbolized hope in their minds that maybe far out west they weren't affected by the Great Depression. Unfortunataly the closer the family got the worse the outcome looked. It got worse and worse and eventually caused even more depression and really made the book attract the reader emotionally and dramatically. It was sad the entire time, but got even worse towards the end which made the book popular to many, but not me.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

"WGBH American Experience . Riding the Rails . Timeline | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 20 Aug. 2011.