Grapes of Wrath 5

This book is a perfect example of the time period. From the first page the reader can just about tell when the story takes place. It is in the time period of the Dust Bowl or the Dirty Thirties. The first chapter is not the most captivating, but it is very descriptive. It goes into great detail of the drought that is happening. The whole story is what most families were going through during the time. They are struggling to feed their families and get shelter.
This novel is like the definition of the social issues happening between the different classes of people during the time period. The rich hate the poor, and the poor hate the rich. There are the excessively rich who are hated by most. Then there are landowners. And finally there are the Poor, working people who go by many names, usually Reds or Okies. The very rich people are mostly with banks, and they are regulating the farms and constantly changing the wages. The landowners have no say in the wages, so they have to follow them. This causes the poor to be upset with the landowners, and the landowners to be upset with the rich. The poor workers also hate the rich too. Because of this chaos the poor start to hate each other. They are all fighting for jobs, and almost all of them take jobs no matter what it pays. The wages can just keep getting lower, and the only way this can change is from a massive strike. But everyone is living for the day, and just wants to feed their family. The whole socioeconomic system is flawed for an entire class of people that take up the majority of the population, and there is no sign of it changing.
This book is a symbol for people needing to work together for a better tomorrow. The preacher, Casy, realizes that people need to follow this idea, and he passes it onto Tom. In the beginning Tom is the exact opposite of the theme. He is living in the now, and he is living for himself. After he starts thinking about it, he realizes that people do need to come together and accomplish something big.

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