Power Corrupts and Absolute Power

Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

The four works which are here under analysis, namely John Steinbeck's novel, the Grapes of Wrath, Arthur Miller's play All My Sons, P.J. Gibson's Long Time since Yesterday and the short story of the Tewa tribe entitled "The Women Warriors" all gravitate around the theme of power. In all these four texts, power comes especially in the form of a material or economic privilege which obviously gives precedence to its owner over the other members of a particular community. Where there is power, there is also abuse and corruption. Thus, in the four stories the pursuit of power seems to be true way to happiness. The texts thus focus on the economical as well as on the political power of individuals or societies and on the way in which power is transformed into abuse and corruption.

John Steinbeck's classic novel, the Grapes of Wrath, describes the period of economical transition during and after the Great Depression in America. The novel revolves around the traditional American leitmotif: the American Dream. It thus offers a glimpse of the changing society, which shifts from tradition to modernism: the land is no longer owned by individuals but by large companies that manage and control it with the sole purpose of obtaining the profit. The book is thus fraught with examples of the way in which the people that hold an economic advantage can transform this advantage into a form of ruthless abuse. The main storyline follows the migration of the farmers in Oklahoma to California, in a desperate pursuit of better jobs. The abuse is thus obvious in the way the rich Californians treat the migrating people. The multiple references to the great owners who exploit the land and the poor people at the same time, always following a single goal- the material profit: "And now the great owners and the companies invented a new method. A great owner bought a cannery. And when the peaches and the pears were ripe he cut the price of fruit below the price of raising it. And as cannery owner he paid himself a low price for the fruit and kept the price of canned goods up and took his profit." (Steinbeck, 363) Another example can be found in the third chapter of the book, where a truck owner intentionally runs over a turtle in the road. Although this might seem only a minor abuse, the gratuity of his inhuman act is symbolic of the way in which power can be transformed into a deadly weapon. In chapter seven, car salesmen also profit from their empowered position and remorselessly take advantage of the desperate people who want to go to California, by raising the prices, lying to the clients and so on. In chapter twenty-two, a woman tells the story of the time she and her husband made an appeal to the Salvation Army and asked for some food. The food was granted only after the husband groveled for it, thus hinting once more at the effect that power has on men. Power corrupts and makes is possessor forget about humanity and ethics. The extent of corruption is shown in those situations where food is thrown away and children are left to die of hunger simply because there would be no profit in selling the fruit: "There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation....Children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate -- died of malnutrition -- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot."(Steinbeck, 391) Thus, Steinbeck makes a cogent commentary on the corruptibility of the human being under the influence of power and economical profit.

Arthur Miller's All My Sons also exemplifies the way in which power can determine unethical acts and abuse. Thus, the protagonist of the story, Joe Keller is a corrupt manufacturer who, in the past, has taken advantage of his power and has knowingly killed over twenty army pilots when he sold defective equipment for the planes. Just as in Steinbeck's novel inhumanity was shown to be the main consequence of the abuse of power, in Miller's play the question of honor is raised. Joe Keller, in spite of the fact that he is not an evil man, has acted dishonorably putting the material profit above all else. As Miller shows, honor is no longer considered a value in the modern, profit-oriented society where the American Dream of economical power and success have taken the place of morality: "He used to shoot a man who acted like a dog, but honour was real there...But here? This is the land of the great big dogs, you don't love a man here, you eat him. That's the principle; the only one we live by - it just happened to kill a few people this time, that's all. The world's that way..."(Miller, 77) Power therefore can cloud the judgment and corrupt all the moral principles.