John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" as naturalistic depression fiction

Grape Depression

John Steinbeck's Naturalism and Direct Historical Representation: The Great Depression and the Grapes of Wrath

Literature cannot help but be reflective of the period in which it is written. Even novels that are set somewhere outside the time and place that author occupies will necessarily include some degree of commentary on the issues, beliefs, and values of the author's own world. This is, in part, what makes an understanding of history so essential to a true understanding of individual works of literature as well as larger literary movements, periods, and genres; though historical criticism is certainly not the only valid approach to reading and interpreting literature, a lack of basic historical knowledge concerning the background of a specific text will almost certainly lead to a misinterpretation of that text and a lack of awareness of certain subtleties and implications in a given work.

At other times, of course, authors make their works far more explicitly about the times in which they are living, or perhaps through which they recently lived. Fiction that is directly and explicitly historical can be very powerful as a means of social and political commentary, and when the literature is of a high enough caliber the messages and characters of a particular piece of historical fiction continue to resonate with subsequent generations while still retaining the flavor and values of the time in which it was created. The stylistic choices and implicit values of a given piece of historical fiction, that is, are embedded both in the external story of the text as well as in its symbolic and structural details.

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is one such piece of historical fiction. Published in 1939, at the end of a decade typified by the major economic downturn known as the Great Depression, the novel depicts the plight of the Joad family and the country at large as poverty, hunger, and a conspiracy of weather patterns changes the face of the Midwest -- the "Breadbasket" of America -- and forces homesteading farmers West in search of itinerant labor and land where foraging might actually yield some nutrition. Both the events and the values of the time period are clearly captured and starkly presented in Steinbeck's novel, and the style of the text is as important to an understanding of the work and the time period as is the story itself. This paper will examine the historical background created by the Great Depression, the basic overall elements of Naturalism in literature, and finally discuss The Grapes of Wrath as a naturalistic representation of this particular period in American history.

The Great Depression

Like most major economic events in modern history, the Great Depression is a highly simplistic way of referring to a time period created by fairly complex and ongoing economic forces. Throughout the 1920s, the newly created Federal Reserve system gave investors a great deal of confidence that the economy would be stabilized, and when the Fed tried raising interest rates in 1928 and 1929 to discourage stock market speculation, business reacted by shrinking back hugely in a succession of mutually harmful protectionist practices (DeLong 1997). This led to the crash of the stock market in 1929 and the beginnings of the recession.

Though The Grapes of Wrath is not directly concerned with the machinations of the economic system that had been created in contemporary American society (the subject is addressed in a symbolic and decidedly non-economic manner, as will be detailed below), it is important to understand the failures of the financial institutions in the country during the 1930s in order to understand the totality of the Joad family's plight. The recession did not occur only in the United States, but took place on a global level; investors were left without money to invest from companies failing, companies failed due to a lack of investment, and the entire global system of finance and trade essentially ground down to an excruciating snail's (or turtle's) pace (Smiley 2008). Very rich individuals actually got richer early on (and some throughout), but in general there was a scramble by banks and those in the middle-class urban and suburban areas to obtain real assets and begin building some semblance of financial security again (Smiley 2008). In the Midwest this meant one thing: land.

By 1933, an estimated fifteen million adults of working age could not find employment -- meaning approximates for the proportion of unemployed range from a quarter to a third of the country's non-farm workforce (The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers 2003; Smiley 2008). In the Midwest, where agriculture was the industry, supporting most families directly and all others in the area indirectly, things were even worse -- nearly forty percent of all farm workers were unemployed (Smiley 2008). Without people to pay decent prices for food crops, farmers were finding themselves unable to earn a living wage (TERP 2003).

They also found themselves unable to pay their mortgages, and with banks in trouble over their own investment speculations they began to seize properties where payments weren't being made on time, as a way to try and wring some modicum of earnings from their holdings (TERP 2003). This, coupled with ongoing drought conditions that turned America's Breadbasket into the great Dust Bowl, drove most of the small farming families out of the lands of the Midwest and into California and other lands West in search of work in the agricultural industry still thriving here (TERP 2003; Smiley 2008). The fact that so many people throughout the country were out of work, however, meant that there was no shortage of willing labor for successful farms (or for any successful venture, for that matter), and wages reduced drastically to the point that families continued to go homeless and hungry even when putting in more than a full day's work (TERP 2003).

The picture of the poor farmers, their loss of land and their dignity in their subsequent working conditions, is the Great Depression that John Steinbeck focuses on in The grapes of Wrath. While the Great Depression of the urban areas is important and influential in the action of the novel, it is not the focus because it was not the experience of the majority of Americans at the time of the Depression itself. Steinbeck wrote about what he saw, and what the people of the Midwest and the bulk of the country saw, and he tried to do so in a manner that was at once highly realistic and yet deeply interpretive and symbolic. This is where a certain starkness in style that is evocative of the period itself begins to emerge.

The Grapes of Wrath

The historical and generic underpinnings of The Grapes of Wrath have now been given a detailed if brief examination and explanation above, making it possible to see precisely how John Steinbeck uses this novel to create a naturalistic representation of the Great Depression. It is important to remember both the specific and the general historic events that were detailed above, as Steinbeck uses a great deal f naturalistic symbolism to describe or allude to these events. At the same time, the book's subject matter -- it's plot and substance -- is merely a backdrop to the story of the Joad's, revealing the first of the tensions Pizer identified in naturalistic works. The second tension is also highly prevalent in this novel, as shall be seen.

The third chapter of The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most frequently selected sections of the book for discussion and commentary and not without reason. The chapter describes a turtle attempting to cross a hot and dusty highway, and its encounters with two different vehicles -- one driven by a woman that swerves to avoid the creature, and a larger truck driven by a man that swerves to hit it. The turtle is flipped onto the other side of the highway, struggles to get back on its feet, and continues plodding on its way (Steinbeck 1939). This chapter is clearly symbolic, and there are several different ways to interpret the turtle's symbolism. A common interpretation is that the turtle represents the Joads and all of the struggling farmers, continuing to plod on despite the seemingly impossible circumstances and the cruelties of others that they are forced to endure, and this interpretation is certainly highly naturalistic: it demonstrates the possible transcendence of man over the oppressive confines of nature, and of achievement despite nature: the second tension Pizer identifies (Campbell 2010).

Another interpretation of the turtle's symbolism is to view the turtle as American society as a whole, attempting to plod its way through even though individuals are generally out for themselves and do not appreciate the overall struggle. This interpretation is somewhat more esoteric, but it is also fundamentally naturalistic as it finds a mirror for mankind's actions in nature. There is no attempt in this chapter to explain the turtle's -- or humanity's -- behavior, especially this early in the novel, but it is clear through the examination of this turtle that Steinbeck is attempting a similar examination of mankind in this period.

In chapter five, which is also removed form the Joad family specifically, a mixture of symbolism and direct description handily evokes the tensions of naturalism that Pizer defined. Steinbeck has the bankers and then the landowners explaining to the tenant farmers why they must vacate the property, in a direct and objective explanation of the workings of the economic system. Steinbeck goes on to describe the tractors that came to plow through the fields, destroying everything in their paths -- including the farmers' former homes -- in an inexorable march of machinery over humanity (Steinbeck 1939). Again, the symbolism is highly evident and can be interpreted in several ways. What seems the strongest interpretation, however, is that the tractor is representative of the same economic "machinery" that is described explicitly in the first part of the chapter; it is a man-made monster that man cannot stop, and has become a part of nature itself in an ironic fashion (Shmoop 2010).

It is not only in these instances of high symbolism that the tensions of naturalism and an examination of man's place in nature are examined in The Grapes of Wrath, however. The novel as a whole contains these tensions as running themes, as the Joad family encounters a series of advances and setbacks that occur amidst the backdrop of overall suffering and degradation of both mankind and nature. The struggle of the Joad family is Steinbeck's way of bringing out the everyday heroism that is described above as being an inherent part of naturalistic works, and the character of Tom Joad emerges as the definite hero of this novel. Though he is not able to overcome the powers of "nature," he is able to resist and see past them.

Ultimately, the transcendence that exists in a naturalistic novel is the ability for mankind to recognize his place in nature, and to insist on a higher level of dignity and integrity than is found in simply allowing for the survival of the fittest. In this way, naturalism is both pessimistic and optimistic: pessimistic because it suggests the laws of nature can never truly be escaped, and optimistic because there will always be those that hold their heads above the mire and enable others to glimpse a better reality, however unreachable. The Joad family experiences this time and time again as they have to deal with death, starvation, theft, and numerous other slights handed out by happenstance and purposeful malevolence. A microcosm of the entire Great Depression can be found in the Joad family's experience, and the emergence of normal, everyday heroes from amidst this ongoing quagmire of bleak struggle is completely definitive of the genre of naturalism in literature.

Conclusion

The Great Depression was a time that presented great challenges to many individuals, families, and the United States and indeed the world as a whole. It is only when the challenges that are faced become extreme, however, that the extreme heroism of everyday individuals can be revealed. As it is this type of heroism that is specifically sought out and described in naturalism, naturalism is the perfect genre for capturing the stories of the Great Depression. This is exactly what John Steinbeck has achieved in The Grapes of Wrath.