Blog #22: The Grapes of Wrath

I believe that the book, The Grapes of Wrath, is probably the most historically accurate book that I have read this summer. I think that the author, John Steinbeck, has done an excellent job explaining how things actually were back in the day of the 1930's. I think that by using the extra, smaller more descriptive chapters throughout the book, the author was able to really show reality in the social issues, social behavior, and the setting of the accurate time period. I saw that the author was really good at showing the social issues right from the very beginning. The other made it apparent that the story was set in the Great Depression in the Dust Bowl. I thought that it was really interesting how the author was able to portray the scene of the dust and sand by saying "The dawn came, but no day." (Steinbeck 2) I cannot even begin to imagine if I looked out by window and could not see anything because everything was blocked out by the dust. The sun is extremely bright, so I cannot even begin to think of how much dust really was up in the air and able to black out the sun enough for night and day not to be able to be distinguished. I looked at pictures on the Internet of the Dust Bowl and I feel like the author did a great job of accurately painting the picture in the readers' minds. I think that the social behavior was explained really well in the fifth chapter when the landowners said, " You'll have to get off the land, the plows'll go right through the dooryard." (Steinbeck 33) This proves that the landowners did not treat the farmers with respect, and that goes to show that the behavior of the higher social class was not the greatest. I do not agree with most of the events and behaviors in this book, but I realize that that was just how things went back in the 1930's.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. NY: Penguin, 1939. Print.

"The Dust Bowl of the 1930s." The Wessels Living History Farm, the Story of Agricultural Innovation. Web. 17 Aug. 2011.