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4.3 The landless peasants’ rage.13
5 The Dignity of Wrath 15
5.1 Factors contributing to the Peasants’ dignity15
5.2 Significance of the Peasants’ Dignity.17
6. Conclusion20
Bibliography..22 1. Introduction
America experienced, in the 1930s, fundamental and historical changes which are unprecedented in its history. One of the changes was the famous The Great Depression. In the time of The Great Depression, there was innumerous unemployment in America, and it first experienced depression and poverty on a large scale. John Steinbeck’s works are representatives of that period of time. And in particular, The Grapes of Wrath serves as a naturalistic epic in American history. As an epic book about the downtrodden of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, the Grapes of Wrath serves as a strong protest against social ills, and is viewed as a praise for the honorableness of the labor and the great capacity for survival of the landless peasants.
The story epitomizes a landless peasant family from all the landless peasants of the Dust Bowl who were forced to abandon their home and travel to California-a land of milk and honey, hoping to start a new life and fulfill their dreams. The westward movement of the landless peasants was an example of the pursuit of the American dream. However, by describing that the Joad family gradually found out that their dreams were made on fake promises, Steinbeck revealed the disillusionment of their dreams and the formation of their rage.
To ensure artistic verisimilitude, as well as the subtle difference of dialect, idiosyncratic tics, habits, and gestures that make characters real, Steinbeck’s realistic fiction was based on his many years of research and his numerous field travels to California to spend times with the Dust Bowl refugees. What he saw were devastating conditions, and great sufferings. Those southern dust bowl immigrants would change California, Steinbeck thought, as the first American settlers change the North America. He believed that the situation here must be handled with humanity and wisdom; otherwise it would destroy the present system of agricultural economics. He had a sense of indignation at the California’s labor situation as he witnessed injustices. Feeling an urgent need to reveal those injustices, Steinbeck racked his brain to write about them, created a story with full potency of his imaginative powers, in an attempt to write a “truly American book”. And in The Grapes of Wrath, the varied combination of subjective experiences, graphic realism, biblical themes, and symbolic forms together achieve the goal of a “truly American book”.
The dust bowl immigrants’ desire for a piece of land, capacity for survival in a hostile environment, unyielding effort to regain dignity, in The Grapes of Wrath, could serve as an illumination for people who dream of a dignified and free society. What I appreciate very much in this story is the landless peasants’ struggles and dignity all along the way. In this thesis, I would discuss what exactly the landless peasants suffered from and how exactly they managed to struggle against them, thus revealing the dignity they arduously fought for.
2. Literature Review
2.1 The Author and the Evaluation of the Grapes of Wrath
Born in Salinas, California, in 1920, John Steinbeck grew up in a fertile agricultural valley. Having studied literature and writing course in Stanford University, he worked as a laborer and journalist in New York. Later the author’s focus was set on the Californian working class whose suffer and courage deeply moved him.
As an American writer, war correspondent, Steinbeck is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. As the author of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books, and five collections of short stories, Steinbeck’s books are still widely read today. Many of Steinbeck’s works are on required reading lists in American high schools. And The Grapes of Wrath may well be the most thoroughly discussed novel-in criticism, reviews, and high schools and college classrooms-of 20th century American literature.