Migrant Workers In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

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The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck “Okies” During the 1930s, the Dust Bowl hit and triggered a time of great hardships that struck several farmers and their families. This troubling era became known as the Great Depression. Countless families began to make their way down to California in a quest for work. Most Migrant workers traveled to California from Oklahoma, thus the nickname “Okies”. John Steinbeck grew up in California in the early 1900s and witnessed the troubles of migrant workers. Steinbeck observed the migrant camps and even worked with them. He also visited Oklahoma, which is where most of the workers migrated from, to research their background. The difficult times of the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s inspired John Steinbeck…show more content…
He portrays the difficulties of migrant workers and their families with the Joad family. “The water grew scarce, water was to be bought, five cents, ten cents, fifteen cents a gallon.” (pg. 274). The okies usually had little to no money in their name making it hard for them to feed their families and even themselves. This conflict usually led to dehydration or starvation which led to the depression of losing a loved one. The farm owners exploited farmers in believeing that the job availability in California was significant by mass advertising their need for work and not having enough jobs for everyone migrating to California. Once the Joad family arrived in California, they realized that job availability was hard to come by and even if they found a job, making a living was going to be harder than they thought with the wages offered: “An’ they ain’t much work. An’ wages is comin’ down all a time. I git so goddamn tired jus’ figgerin’ how to eat.” John Steinbeck witnessed the struggles of American people during the Great Depression and wrote about his observations and research in The Grapes of Wrath. The novel serves as Steinbeck’s commentary on the inequalities and conflicts that people experienced because of the Dust Bowl and its tragedies. He described how they lived and he criticized
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