An Analysis of the Conflicts During the Depression

Carter 1

An Analysis of the Conflicts during the Depression in The Grapes of Wrath

Jennifer Carter Ms. Hallis ENG4U1 Tuesday May 24, 2005 Carter 2

The nineteen-thirties marked the Great Depression, a time of sorrow, bitterness, and beggary. This period of history entailed unrealistic hardships, which resulted in country-spread migration, poverty, and starvation. Both the drought and the eviction of farmers contributed to their forced mass migration. False advertisements led the farming families to believe that there was work in the west. For this reason, all the families loaded their possessions into old trucks and began their one thousand mile journey to

California in hopes of beginning a new life. Unfortunately, when the families reached their destination, they learned that the landowners in California were continually decreasing wages because of the growing population of migrant workers. At the end of this journey, families were suffering from poverty, were struggling to survive, and lastly were jobless and homeless. John Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath, depicts the futility entangling the Oklahoma migrants during the depression, including the conflicts of man against man, man against society, and man against nature.

The increased prices on cars and Casy’s death are both outcomes of man against man conflicts during the depression. When the Oklahoma farmers decided to travel west to California for work, many of them needed to buy family-sized cars to fit the entire family. However, the farmers were not aware that car salesmen were taking advantage of this necessity by overpricing cars. An Oklahoma car salesman said the following to a work: “Goddamn it, I got to get jalopies. I don’t want nothing for more’n twenty-five, thirty bucks. Sell ‘em for fifty, seventy-five. That’s a good profit…I can sell ‘em as fast as I get ‘em” (Steinbeck 62). Knowing that the Oklahoma farmers would have to buy a car, salesmen resold cars the bought inexpensively for a higher price to their consumers.

These cars bought by the farmers were referred to as jalopies, which are “…bad old cars Carter 3 which use too much oil and go wrong” (Matuz 33). Although, the farmers quickly realized that they were coned for their money, they could not afford to buy a better car, they were on a budget that had to last the entire trip. While the families traveled west, the jalopies would break down. The Oklahoma farmers would usually have “…to get a tire, but…[salesmen] want a lot for a ol’tire. They look a fella over. They know he got to go on. They know he can’t wait. And the price goes up” (Steinbeck 120). No matter what the families tried, they could not do anything to stop or to escape the increasing prices.

Subsequently, the depression created a period of inflation, where families were required to pay the expensive prices or be unable to travel west.

Further conflict ensued when the Joad family reached California. It was extremely difficult to find work, which had the family constantly moving from cap to camp. One night when Tom heard commotion outside the camp boundaries, he snuck outside to see what it was about. There had been a strike earlier led by Casy with a group of migrants he rallied together after his release from jail. The strikers were trying to make life better during this difficult time. While Casy and Tom talked about his plans, they were approached by strike-bearers, who had been looking for Casy. Casy tried explaining what was happening to the migrants because of work pay cuts:

“Listen,” [Casy] said. “You fellas don’ know what you’re doin’. You’re helpin’ to starve kids.”…“Shut up, you read-son-of-a-bitch.” [said a strike-bearer]…Casy went on, “You don’ know what you’re a- doin’.”…The heavy man swung with the pick handle…The heavy club crashed into the side of [Casy’s] head with a dull crunch of bone, and [he] fell sideways out of light…“Jesus, George. I think you killed him,” [said the other strike-bearer]…“Serve the son-of-a-bitch right.” (Steinbeck 386)

Casy’s strike was an “…attempt to stop farm owners from driving down wages. He lead some of the migrant workers on a strike [to try] to force a settlement” (Storer 1). More generally, it was an attempt to improve all the dilemmas brought by the depression; Carter 4 unfortunately Casy was unable to finish what he had begun and for this reason, Tom decided to continue Casy’s idea. Casy’s fight to stop the hardships brought by the depression was ended quickly, creating less hop for the migrants to have a better life because it did not matter what they tried, no one would listen, thus their attempts were useless.

The Oklahoma migrant’s social resistance during the depression was evident in their eviction, the landowner arrived in their luxurious car and through the window they would explain:

“…the tenant system won’t work any more. One man on a tractor can take the place of twelve or fourteen families. Pay him a wage and take all the crop. We have to do it. We don’t like to do it. But the monster’s sick. Something’s happened to the monster…You’ll have to get off the land. The plows’ll go through the dooryard.” (Steinbeck 33)

The farmer’s land was going to be destroyed by plows because the landowners were not profiting enough from the lands crops since the Dust Bowl and the beginning of the depression. Instead, they would now pay one man, who could do it twice as fast, with a tractor. When told to leave their home many tenant farmers argued for the chance to be allowed to stay. Several farmers threatened to kill the person I charge of this plan.

The Joads were only one family to learn that a bank was not a man. It was made up of men, but it was a bigger thing and it controlled them, even though sometimes they hated to do what the bank-monster said they must. That monster moved out the Joads and other thousands… (Matuz 316)

With the realization that they could not kill another man, the tenant farmers agreed to leave the land. The families packed up their family’s belongings and left as soon as possible. Again, the farmers attempt to solve the conflict, did not help them at all.

In California, the Oklahoma migrants continued to experience conflicts. With the continual influx of Oklahoma migrants, many Californians became upset. Several Carter 5

Californians blocked the migrants from entering areas in the state, while the rest called them names and told them to leave. Upon arrival, the Joad family stopped for a rest. At this moment, a policeman approached Ma Joad and said, “…you ain’t in your country now. You’re in California, an’ we don’t want you goddamn Okies settlin’ down.’…Ma’s advance stopped. She looked puzzled. ‘Okie?’ she said softly…’Yeah, Okies!’ [said the man]” (Steinbeck 214). Okie is a nickname made by the Californians for the Oklahoma migrants. Before the mass migration, Okie meant you were from Oklahoma, but “‘[n]ow it mea[t] you [were] a dirty son-of-a-bitch. Okie mean[t] you’re scum’” (Steinbeck 205-

206). The Oklahoma migrants were now known as a label, a label they could not remove as long as they were in California, where they were unwanted. Consequently, the

Oklahoma migrants could not prevent the Californians from calling them Okie; unless they left; however, they could not leave because there was no where for them to go and they needed work.

Furthermore, the battle between the drought and the struggle to survive is present through the migrants’ conflicts against nature. The Dust Bowl’s day-by-day destruction of the farmer’s fields is described as follows:

The sun flared down on the growing corn day after day…the wind cried and whimpered over the fallen corn…Now the dust was evenly mixed with the air, an emulsion of dust and air…The people came out of their houses and smelled the hot stinging air and covered their noses from it…Men stood by their fences and looked at the ruined corn, drying fast now, only a little green showing through the film of dust. (Steinbeck 1- 3)

These families already suffered the tragedy of money loss, and now, they “…have had their ramshackle but cherished homes and their small patches of earth snatch[ed] away from them by the insatiable behemoth of big-scale agriculture” (Bryfonski 533). The loss of crops would soon be the men’s least concern, because the landowner would arrive in Carter 6 their luxurious cars and explain “…[that] the land is poor. You’ve scrabbled at it long enough, God knows…If the dust only wouldn’t fly. If the top would only stay on the soil, it might not be so bad. You know the land’s getting poorer…The tenant system won’t work any more…You’ll have to get off the land” (Steinbeck 32-33). There was nothing for the farmers to do; they had to leave the land because they did not own it. If they refused, they went to jail. Moreover, landowners evicted the farmers because there was not enough profit being made to pay the farmers. The Oklahoma state was suffering from “…farm profits and land values dropp[ing], farmers [were losing] their land, and many became tenant farmers. The Dust Bowl caused by drought hit the Great Plains and destroyed fertile fields” (Palmer 2). These conditions would not improve, leading to unemployment. Without an income families would soon be living in poverty. In an attempt to escape destitution, they migrated. Nevertheless, the migration proved as fruitless as escaping poverty as in Oklahoma.

The conditions that the Joad family and the other Oklahoma migrants lived in during their journey to and while in California was revolting. It was hard enough for the parents to provide their families with food every night, but hey also had to worry about not having running water, a washroom, or a place to sleep, making life more difficult.

Living in these conditions could be the reason fro Rose of Sharon’s stillbirth. “[Mrs.

Wainwright] picked up a lantern and held it over an apple box in the corner. On a newspaper lay a blue shriveled little mummy…’Never breathed,’ said Mrs. Wainwright softly. ‘Never was alive’” (Steinbeck 444). Sadly, Rose of Sharon’s baby did not receive the proper amount of nourishment needed while in the womb. In spite of this heartbreaking incident, she was able to “…put [Tom’s parting speech] into action at the Carter 7 end of the novel, as the most intimate and private family function becomes an act of relinquishment of love and compassion for mankind as a whole” (Riley 272). She “… bared her breast [full of milk to a man] dieing from starvation…” (Steinbeck 453-455).

The increased amount of migrants that were sick and were suffering from starvation was because when the families came to California they could only live n restricted areas. The conditions of these areas were poor, increasing their chance of disease. The migrants either had to live in these areas or leave the state, thus, they could not do anything to stop this conflict.

It is obvious that the Oklahoma migrants were powerless in being able to stop the conflicts they suffered from during the depression. During this time, the migrants were unable to make their life better because they were unable to control the events unfolding before them. The families had to pay the increased prices, they had to leave their land, and they had to suffer being called Okie. The families had to do this because the people who tried to put an end to the mistreating of others were arrested or killed; no one could do anything to stop the challenges continually befalling them. Finally, the depression was an extremely difficult time for everyone and none of the preventions were beneficial to end it.

Word Count: 1292 Carter 8

Works Cited

Bryfonski, Dedria, ed. Contemporary Literary Criticism. 13 vols. Detroit: Gale

Research Company, 1978.

Matuz, Roger, ed. Contemporary Literary Criticism. 59 vols. Detroit: Gale Research

Company, 1990.

Palmer, Rosemary. Understanding The Grapes of Wrath: A Student Casebook to Issues,

Sources, and Historical Documents. International Reading Association Inc., 2001.

Riley, Carolyn, ed. Contemporary Literary Criticism. 5 vols. Detroit: Gale Research

Company, 1976.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. United States of America: Penguin, 1939.