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Statistics

• 1933-1934, nearly 1 in 10 farms changed possession, with half of those being involuntary
  • Creditors
  • Banks
  • Work for families
• 1937: 21% of all rural families were receiving financial aid

Syllabus pointer: how ideas, values and assumptions are conveyed, that is, how … literary texts may be used to ‘naturalise’ particular ways of thinking, to serve the purposes of these powerful groups, while marginalising the views of other less powerful groups.

Idea 1

• zoomorphism of workers highlights how insignificant the farmers are, and the desparation of their situation
• “They swarmed on the highways…the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food.”
  • • e.g. insects, insignificant
  • Swarmed also creates a sinister tone, as if the farmers are taking over everything
  • Primarily used ‘Highway 66’
  • Found little prospects in California, which had been saturated by countless others looking for work
  • Work = food, i.e. in this capitalist society work is of equal importance to food
• “were wild cats…hunting gophers and field mice, and sleeping in ditches”
  • Living like animals
  • Gophers and field mice are small creatures and not generally regarded as food due to their low nutrition, which demonstrates their desperation
  • Again, they are likened to an animal, i.e. wild cats, to show their insignificance

Idea 2

• Suppression of working class as a collective by the upperclass in a means to belittle and oppress them
• Naturalises the generalised view of working class as savages
• “These goddamned Okies are dirty and ignorant. They’re degenerate, sexual maniacs. These goddamned Okies are thieves. They’ll steal anything. They’ve got no sense of property rights”
  • “These” and “They” used to generalise, ties in to discrimination prevalent in early 20th century America
  • High modality language in “goddamned Okies” used as a slur towards people from “Oklahoma”, as they migrated from Oklahoma to California
    • Almost 300 thousand people, mainly from Oklahoma migrated to
  • Ironic, as “they’ve got no” is grammatically incorrect, and it should be “they’ve no”
• “they were good and the invaders bad”
  • Invaders referring to the farmers
  • Connotes colonisation, taking over, etc
  • Ironic due to the upper class exploiting the farmers, forcing them to “invade”
  • Also serves to demean the working class

Idea 3

• Power gap between the 2 castes
• Repetition of “great owners” and “great companies” and “little farmers”, used to establish power gap between the 2 castes
  • “Great” being a title used for historical figures with large impacts on civilisations, contrasted with “little”, in this case, a sardonic phrase used to belittle the farmers
• “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” - Karl Marx, the Communist Manifesto
  • In a capitalist society such as America during the Great Depression, many economic philosophers’ ideals were becoming apparent.
• “[the farms] were taken by the great owners”
  • Again, this idea of Great is used
  • Also creates the sense that the upper class has a lot of power over the working class

Practise Essay

The Great Depression was a period of great economic downturn, and caused widespread famine and poverty across the United States. This was most prevalent in the period of the Dust Bowl, a large series of dust storms in Central US. This combination of factors caused many farmers to lose their farms to the upper class, and migrate to other states to seek work there. However, the upper class, i.e. businesses and banks, perceived this as them trying to ‘invade their land’, creating a social divide between the two classes. Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, published in 1962, illustrates this idea. Grapes of Wrath is used to ‘naturalise’ this classist divide, in that the upper class is superior, to serve the purpose of the upper class, while marginalising the views and perceptions of the working class. Steinbeck actively illustrates the power gap between the two classes, demonstrates the suppression of the lower class by the upper class in an attempt to demean and belittle them, and represents the futility of the farmer’s situations, and their insignificance. To quote the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”, and Grapes of Wrath is no exception to this, in a capitalist society such as early 20th century America, where so many economic theories were becoming apparent.

Grapes of Wrath illustrates the power gap between the 2 castes through its use of contrast and repetition. Throughout the prose, the two classes are referred to as “little farmers” and “great owners”. “Great” is a title used for those with immense influence, which is contrasted with the use of “little”, to illustrate the power gap. Also consider that the opposite of “little” is “big”, with “great” being of more scale. This further demonstrates the immense difference in class, by not making them opposites, but instead making one better than its opposite. This is further supported by the farms which were “taken by the great owners”. Again, “great” is used for the illustration of power disparity, but this also creates the sense that the upper class holds immense power over the working class. This was also evident in 1933-1934, where nearly 1 in 10 farms changed possession, with half of those being involuntary. Grapes of Wrath conveys the immense power disparity between the upper and working class through its use of contrast and repetition.

The suppression of working class as a collective by the upperclass in a means to belittle and oppress them is also conveyed by Grapes of Wrath. This has the effect of naturalising the generalised view of working class as savages. The working class is referred to as “These goddamned Okies are dirty and ignorant. They’re degenerate, sexual maniacs. These goddamned Okies are thieves. They’ll steal anything. They’ve got no sense of property rights”. “These” and “They” is used to generalise the workers, and ties in to discrimination prevalent in early 20th century America. This high modality language in the repetition of “goddamned Okies” is used as a slur towards people from “Oklahoma”, as almost 300 thousand farmers migrated from Oklahoma to California. This represents these farmers as uncivilised and lesser, and more primal, as can be seen through their apparent misunderstanding of societal norms. This is further apparent, when the upper class refer to themselves as “good, and the invaders bad.”, with invaders referring to the farmers. This connotes colonisation, and violence, and is ironic due to the upper class exploiting the farmers, forcing them to “invade”, and the fact that the upper class is most likely made of colonisers itself. It also serves to demean the working class. Thus, Grapes of Wrath conveys the suppression of the working class as a collective by the upper class as a means to belittle and oppress them.

Grapes of Wrath also illustrates the farmers as insignificant, and their situation as desperate, through its use of zoomorphism. The prose recounts the farmers that “swarmed on the highways…the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food.”. Here, the farmers are likened to insects, to represent their insignificance to the upper class. “Swarmed” also creates a sinister tone, as if the farmers are taking over everything. The farmers primarily used ‘Highway 66’, and found little prospects in California, which had been saturated by countless others looking for work. Work is also implied to be of equal importance as food, i.e. they need work to live, which highlights the desparation of their situation. They are further described as “wild cats…hunting gophers and field mice, and sleeping in ditches”. In this, their living conditions are akin to animals, presenting their plight as pitiful. Furthermore, gophers and field mice are small creatures and not generally regarded as food, which demonstrates their desperation. Again, they are likened to an animal, i.e. wild cats, to show their insignificance to the upper class. Thus, Grapes of Wrath represents the futility of the farmer’s situations, and their insignificance.

To conclude, Grapes of Wrath is used to ‘naturalise’ the superiority of the upper class in an attempted to silence the working class. Steinbeck actively illustrates the power gap between the two classes, demonstrates the suppression of the lower class by the upper class in an attempt to demean and belittle them, and represents the futility of the farmer’s situations, and their insignificance. A capitalist society is one with little to no duty of care to its citizens, and is represented as such. Grapes of Wrath serves as a reminder of this, that it is every person for themselves, and that your station in life determines your worth as a person.