Sara Niles's Blog: Sara Nile's Blog - Posts Tagged "grapes-of-wrath"
Social Issues: John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck's Gift to Us
The Great Depression was the greatest economic disaster in America. It began with the crash of the stock market on ‘Black Tuesday’ in 1929, and by the early 1930’s, it was in full swing. The Grapes of Wrath, written by Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck, painted a fictional story of lives that were all too real for people who lived the tale that Steinbeck recreated through the Joad family’s desperate attempt to survive.
The ‘grapes’ of prosperity, that is the work and prosperity the family hoped to find when they reached the grape orchards in California, became the ‘Grapes of Wrath’, by the time they reached their destination. Economic strife, hardship and the societal turmoil of a frustrated generation, paved the way for a New Day, when Eisenhower moved to enact ‘New Deal’ legislation that provided economic stability for the banks, and welfare programs for the poor, social security for the aged and sick, and a brand new minimum wage:Franklin D. Roosevelt's post depression Programs.
The climate of the American economy was a dark and bleak one, as the Joad family traveled Route 66, while Steinbeck painted a permanent literary portrait of what life was like during the Great Depression era. The Grapes of Wrath provide more than simple entertainment, it captured a piece of American history and framed it in our minds forever.
The Great Depression was the greatest economic disaster in America. It began with the crash of the stock market on ‘Black Tuesday’ in 1929, and by the early 1930’s, it was in full swing. The Grapes of Wrath, written by Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck, painted a fictional story of lives that were all too real for people who lived the tale that Steinbeck recreated through the Joad family’s desperate attempt to survive.
The ‘grapes’ of prosperity, that is the work and prosperity the family hoped to find when they reached the grape orchards in California, became the ‘Grapes of Wrath’, by the time they reached their destination. Economic strife, hardship and the societal turmoil of a frustrated generation, paved the way for a New Day, when Eisenhower moved to enact ‘New Deal’ legislation that provided economic stability for the banks, and welfare programs for the poor, social security for the aged and sick, and a brand new minimum wage:Franklin D. Roosevelt's post depression Programs.
The climate of the American economy was a dark and bleak one, as the Joad family traveled Route 66, while Steinbeck painted a permanent literary portrait of what life was like during the Great Depression era. The Grapes of Wrath provide more than simple entertainment, it captured a piece of American history and framed it in our minds forever.
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