Grapes of Wrath: Corporations steamrolling individuals

So far in The Grapes of Wrath the themes have had a trend to still last into today’s modern world. With this in mind one recurring idea is big-time businesses steamrolling individuals. Three of the most evident point were the pushing of middle-class people to poverty, corruption in the work place, and the helplessly outmanned individuals attempting to stand up to these corporations. Although Steinbeck sets up the setting of The Grapes of Wrath with the citizens of the Midwest being extremely affected by the Dust Bowl, it was the people that were more fortunate that made everything as bad as it was. This, plus no crops, no money, and not being able to pay mortgages and other bills resulted in a colossal amount of foreclosures, which in the book causes a mass exodus to California. In the modern world this is exactly what happened in 2011, over 1.2 million households were lost to foreclosures. Another point was that in The Grapes of Wrath the Californian government was attempting to keep migrant workers from coming into the state. This is illegal and was put in place because of the people at the top didn’t have enough jobs to give to the people towards the bottom. Similarly, in Somalia when the government was taken over by terrorists, no one was allowed to leave the country without risking getting killed because the of leader’s personal opinion on other religions. This common idea of man building flames to the inevitable fire is one that still takes place today. Governments take advantage of their people to save their skin but businessmen are also to blame. In the book, Al, Tom, Uncle John, and Pa go to town to sell the horses, wagon, and the furniture from the house. In exchange for all of these items they get 18 dollars, which even in this setting is definitely an example of the average joe getting taken advantage of. This kind of scamming happens constantly. There is a reason undercover shows exist to see if a business is legitimate or not. With this