The Grapes of Wrath: How accurately does this novel reflect events in history?

I have to believe that this question has been made just for this book. None of the other choices from the reading list have such an historical significance like The Grapes of Wrath does. This book is historical fiction and it revolves around The Great Depression and the book reflects this time period very well. People are dying, starving, leaving their homes, selling all of their possessions, and in all suffering. That word sums up The Great Depression very well, suffering. There was next to no prospering during this time period in America. Whole families were dying off because they got sick or did not have any food on the table.

I think that The Great Depression must have influenced Steinbeck. The author lived through The Great Depression and he must have been greatly affected by it just as most of America. He knew everything about it and it left an impression on his life, so much to write a book about the excruciating ordeal. Steinbeck is very qualified to write this book. We know he did not just go to the library one day and learn about it. He wants the reader to feel how he did during the whole thing, angry and depressed. I believe the idea of "The grass is greener on the other side." must have inspired him also. He wrote a book about a family who thinks that there is more opportunity in a far off land and they are willing to do anything to get there. Selling all of their possessions and risking their lives just for "greener grass". His mother also may have inspired him. In the last chapter, Rose of Sharon becomes a motherly figure and a savior because even though she does not have a live baby, she saves the starving man's life with her breast milk (Steinbeck, Chapter 30). It is possible that he thought his mother was a saint and she would have done the same thing.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 1992. Print.