Summary Of The Grapes Of Wrath
I grew up in the concrete jungle; my Grandfather, David Gillespie, grew up on a farm. These two worlds are starkly different from one another, as John Steinbeck highlights in his novel, The Grapes of Wrath and Gillespie describes in his childhood tales. The compilation of these two tales highlights the increasing role and dependence on technology coupled with the stigma that continually surrounds agricultural workers from the Great Depression to the more modern era. To begin, my full revelation of this idea came to me as I interviewed Gillespie. It became quickly evident how dependent on technology his family’s farm was as he stated, “My father had draft horses, but they didn’t last long once we got a tractor” (Gillespie). In other words,
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Gillespie recounts, “Back in fourth grade my one roomed schoolhouse went under construction, so they tried to send us to another school in the city. However, the teacher there refused to let us attend; we were forced to go elsewhere” (Gillespie). Ergo, a sense of stigma can be detected in the teacher’s refusal to except a farmer’s son at the city school. Such ignominy is further explicated in Steinbeck’s work as one Californian states, “You’re in California, an’ we don’t want you goddamn Okies settlin’ down” (Steinbeck 275). In other words, this Californian believes that Okies are detrimental to his community, and therefore is fearful of such migrant farmers settling in the area. This fear is then funneled into stigma, as the general Californian populace, depicted by this nameless man, spirals into the shunning of an entire population of migrant farmers. In turn, this is depicted in Gillespie’s life as he notes, “The high school I went to was county-wide and it included all of the country kids. The cities kids had their own schools” (Gillespie). Not only does this segregation of children reflect the stigma that surrounded the country farm families, it also mirrors the stigma depicted in Steinbeck’s novel. While it is true that schools may have been decided on location over vocation, it does not follow that all of the children living in the
Gillespie recounts, “Back in fourth grade my one roomed schoolhouse went under construction, so they tried to send us to another school in the city. However, the teacher there refused to let us attend; we were forced to go elsewhere” (Gillespie). Ergo, a sense of stigma can be detected in the teacher’s refusal to except a farmer’s son at the city school. Such ignominy is further explicated in Steinbeck’s work as one Californian states, “You’re in California, an’ we don’t want you goddamn Okies settlin’ down” (Steinbeck 275). In other words, this Californian believes that Okies are detrimental to his community, and therefore is fearful of such migrant farmers settling in the area. This fear is then funneled into stigma, as the general Californian populace, depicted by this nameless man, spirals into the shunning of an entire population of migrant farmers. In turn, this is depicted in Gillespie’s life as he notes, “The high school I went to was county-wide and it included all of the country kids. The cities kids had their own schools” (Gillespie). Not only does this segregation of children reflect the stigma that surrounded the country farm families, it also mirrors the stigma depicted in Steinbeck’s novel. While it is true that schools may have been decided on location over vocation, it does not follow that all of the children living in the