History Of John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

Grapes of Wrath History John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in response to the life of the people that lived in Oklahoma and traveled west to California. This book, which was written during the end of the dirty thirties, is filled with anger and hatred related to the dust bowl and the great depression times. Steinbeck strived for this novel to be his best he had ever written. He spent months researching how the people were treated during these times in order to enhance the emotions of the times. He desired to make sure that every detail he put in the book was true and relatable to the times. Steinbeck went to California in the late 1930’s. While he was there he decided to write this novel about the dust bowl and great depression
Due to the loss of jobs people were forced to migrate west to California. It became very difficult for many migrants to find jobs and even places to live. They were paid little to nothing in wages, and were being watched and controlled in all the camps. If the people did anything wrong at these camps they were hurt by the men who policed the area. Steinbeck wanted to write this book because he wanted to show how the people coped with their troubles on their travels. For example, in the book a family moved from camp to camp just because they could not afford to live the camps due to the lack of
It received both good and bad attention. Some of the readers in general, misinterpreted what they read and took offense to the book. Certain people thought they were being accused of the things that happened to the migrant families, and they thought he exaggerated the conditions of the migrant camps. Other people felt like they were being attacked by the book. Many critics questioned the accuracy, decency, and politics in the book. The Oklahoma’s U.S. Representative Lyle Boren said that the novel was “a lie, a black, infernal creation of a twisted, distorted mind” in the Congressional Record. Not everyone took offense to the book, though. Peter Munro Jack of the New York Times Book Review said, “It is a long and thoughtful novel as one thinks about it. It is a short and vivid scene as one feels.” This book even inspired other authors, for example, T.C. Boyle wrote a book called The Tortilla Curtain in 1995, this book focused of the Mexican immigrants rather than the Dust Bowl migrant workers. In the article entitled, “National Endowment for the Arts,” Eleanor Roosevelt said the novel both repels and attracts you because of the horrible pictures it gives you, and yet you cannot stop reading it. This book had a huge effect on a mass of