The Grapes of Wrath: How does this novel reflect the history, behavior and social issues of the time period and setting?

This novel is historical fiction. It took place during a real event but the characters and people in the story are made up. The Great depression is one of the most monumental time periods in the history of the United States. Everyone struggled and many people had to fight for jobs. With most people out of a job, they were not making any money and a lot of families would have problems getting food on the table, if food had been on the table they would leave the table still hungry(Steinbeck, Chapter 15). This book does a very good job of portraying how the average american felt during this time. We get to follow a family on their journey to California for the promise of jobs.

During the time period, many people did not have homes and in the book it explains how people would try to live in the ditch on the side of the road. It tells us about the struggle for a job and how some men would come around and say how many men they needed and they then watched the people fighting over the positions. I know this all happened from what I learned about the Great Depression in history class and from what I already knew of it. The behavior is similar to what was just said. People did what ever they had to do to ensure their family's safety. They would fight over jobs, food, money and they would steal if they had to. The people of that time and in this book were not as fortunate as we are today and I think that we should be very grateful for what we have. The social issues of this time were pretty sever. People were not throwing a party every weekend because they were hoping to just have enough food to get them through the week and they hoped that they still had a job to be able to buy food. Only the very wealthy were not fazed as much by the Great Depression and we did not hear much about the wealthy in this book because the suffering were not worrying about them, they were worrying about themselves.

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