... ended, they continued to produce the same amount, despite the decrease in demand. As a result, many farmers lost a great deal of money. Some farms were even lost to bank foreclosures. In addition, farmers in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado were experiencing an even ... bigger problem. The large amount of production on their farms and poor managed land created an environmental disaster when mixed with a drought. Millions of tons of dry top soil were being blown into the ... dust storms which blew dust as far away as Chicago, and often blackened the skies. (...

• Word Count: 1234
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... It is in this context that the "Dust Bowl' of the Great Plains emerged. The infertility of the land and the take-over of farms by creditors characterized this seven year long catastrophe. When describing the Dust Bowl, it is inevitable to describe the rare drought years the American Great ... 1920's it was obvious that the extent of the area of the farmland of every individual was not sufficient to produce enough to support a family, and it was impossible to make it do so. Still land owners cultivated as much as they could for as long as they could, ... at the reduction of drought impa...

• Word Count: 1375
• Approx Pages: 6

... the New Deal was trying to do for people, but things like the dustbowl tried to hinder that concept. When farms dried up and banks came to collect their money, the farmers were forced to sell their land. If there are no farms, then a lot of sharecroppers were out of business in the Oklahoma area. When news came that there was work ... in California they headed west. Farms in California were sending out 1000 flyers for 6 hundred people. But when 400 people read it and then ... bring the other 7 people in their family, there becomes a problem. With the clever name "Okies", sharecroppers ...

• Word Count: 395
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... story of the destitute workers of the 1930's who had been driven from their farms and were pouring into California to face hunger, squalor and humiliation. The particular family in this novel, the Joad family, travels toward California along with thousands of other families in hopes of finding steady work ... accurate portrayal of the Great Depression. Hundreds of thousands of people were moving west in order to find a way to provide for their family. Another accurate illustration of the Great Depression through The Grapes of Wrath was the handbills. The Joads come across handbills, whi...

• Word Count: 846
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... the Southern Pacific. Los Angeles's population quadrupled in the 1880s, and doubled again by 1900, when it had 100,000 residents (Rice). Although railroad land grants discouraged a pattern of small family farms in California, they were a strong incentive for the railroads to encourage people in other parts of the country to visit or to settle in towns and cities. Tourists, of course ... it had been in 1929. The number of building permits in 1933 was less than one ninth what it had been eight years earlier (Starr). Many property-owners lost their farms and their homes. Unemployment in th...

• Word Count: 1570
• Approx Pages: 6

... the wild oat head fell out and three of the spearhead seeds stuck in the ground" (Steinbeck, 22) . This entire event foreshadows the events which the family later would experience: struggles, loss, and "rebirth". 3.What opinions does Casy, the former preacher, have about sin and using "bad words?" Casy, having ... , 45), rather, it is the monster that drives people from their homes, that sends the tractors to plow the land and ready it for cotton farms. The small farmers have no power against the banks or the tractors. If a tractor driver is killed by an angry farmer, the bank would just ...

• Word Count: 5172
• Approx Pages: 21
• Grade Level: High School

... president who looks the other way. Who offers you lovely Hoover sandwiches and a nice place to live Hooverville. You have no job, no money, no family, no hope. Welcome to the depression. As shown in this statement by Frank Walker, president of the National Emergency Council, 1934 no one was spared ... issue dealt in both books is the cruelty of the world. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay ... o...

• Word Count: 2022
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... the migrant workers of California to be given the right to live decently. He offers three suggestions: 1. that migrant workers be allotted small farms on which they can live and work when there is no call for migrant labour 2. that a Migratory Labour Board be created 3. that ... ; when the land goes, everything else goes, too. The novel is diverse: it consists of parts discussing the adventures of the Joad family and the Great Depression, and besides these themes Steinbeck had enough material left over to write separate, philosophic interchapters. From these elements neither ... appea...

• Word Count: 2399
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... different types of them here at different parts of our seasons. As I read in my book about the traveling family of Hispanics called Migrants made there way through the different farms staying at each place until the crop season came to a end. The Hispanics in Minnesota have came here through ... symbols. I also see these symbols on their vehicles and some of their other property. I work for Dirks and I delivered a couch to a Hispanic family's house and there were religious pictures all over their apartment. Brenda Jimenez talked to our class and said the same thing Florida did about bei...

• Word Count: 1446
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... in which he sympathizes with them. Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 for his novel, "The Grapes of Wrath". This novel is about a poor Oklahoma family traveling to California to find a new life during this difficult era. The entire nation was in ruins and felt the impact. This novel was inspired by ... said. This hardship is seen in "The Grapes of Wrath". Many families of Oklahoma left for California to try and start new lives as the Joad family did. "The Grapes of Wrath" is a reflection of what life was like on the west coast of America during the 1930's. The Dust Bowl had ... T...

• Word Count: 1667
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... laborer picking peaches. Now that the story of my father has been shortly and brokenly told it is now my mothers turn. My mother was born into a larger family. She was the last one born to Jesus and Juanita Garcia. My mother, Juana Ramos, was born on August 15, 1953. She was lucky number thirteen. My ... aunt alone out there. She then decided to come and live with my aunt. She was able to hitch a ride with some family members in 1974. My mom then began to work in labor farms as well. Her first job was working in a strawberry patch farm in Sanger. That is how the story of my mother and .....

• Word Count: 2440
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... of controversy is the class struggle between the rich and the poor. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck consistently focuses on the treatment of the migrant farmers. During many occasions, the Joad Family is put to the test, and it's apparent that them, along with the other poor people, fail to come close in social power to any character that isn't poor. The ... novel tells of ones family's migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were ...

• Word Count: 1049
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms along with the erosion of topsoil to create "the Dust Bowl". The ... bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California, how they ... , killed Casey because he was "agitating" the public. Certain government organizations were aware of the harsh living and pay cond...

• Word Count: 490
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... they find it deserted, the house falling down and cotton planted in the dooryard. From a neighbour, Muley Graves, they learn that the Joads (Tom's family) have been thrown off their farm by the bank that owns the land. And that the long drought has made farming unprofitable. Also that they are ... a new home and a new livelihood. The drought has become worse, the crops are failing, and the banks are not only evicting families from their farms, but bringing in tractors that can do the work of fifteen families apiece. According to handbills they've seen, good jobs are plentiful in Californ...

• Word Count: 825
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... of views experienced during the novel. In one of these sections, the fear of the Californian landowners is portrayed. These wealthy landowners came into power only after a desperate necessity of farms and food, stealing the land from Mexico. They fear that history will repeat itself; they know that hungry and desperate people are a danger to their stability as land owners. "..that ... , is once again displayed. This section explores the idea that "I" has no power when compared to "we". When a single man or family stands in protest, the western residents have no fear. With their numbers t...

• Word Count: 696
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School