The book The Grapes of Wrath captures well how the families struggled in real life. In the book and in real life families did start moving west to find jobs. The journey to California for the Joads was hard but the hardest was actually realizing what California was like. It is actually mentioned in the book that people are “livin’ like hogs, ‘cause ever’thing in California is owned” (Steinbeck 265). The Joads were filled with hope and were made to believe that California was going to be a place to start over and that there were many jobs it was a beautiful fraud. Many families arriving in to this new state were met with resentment because the locals did not want them there. The people of California had come up with the term “Okies,” a derogatory term, which meant “a dirty son- of- a bitch” (Steinbeck 265). The current residents did not want any outsiders coming in and stealing their jobs, especially since the cost of living had gone up and wages had gone down. Those how had suffered the effects of the dust bowl were lured in with the hope of jobs, but there were not any since all the people had gone to California. The Joads ended up being equally or even worse than they were back home in Oklahoma.
In conclusion, atmospheric conditions and the dust bowl had a huge impact on the lives of many people. The link between the book The Grapes of Wrath and the historical element is