How The Great Depression Reflected In The Grapes Of Wrath

As a boy, John grew up in a middle class family. He had to earn all of his own money while in school. He worked on ranches during the summer and also delivered papers on his bicycle. When he was growing up he was shy. He was often teased for his large ears. He most often resorted to reading books rather than retaliating and getting into fights with other children. In 1915 John enrolled in Salinas high school. While in high school he often wrote stories and anonymously sent them in to magazines. He was the president of his senior class and was one of 24 graduates for that year. Steinbeck enrolled into Stanford University in 1919. His attendance was a little rough. He attended Stanford on and off for six years when John finally left Stanford in 1925 without a degree. …show more content…
While the Great Depression had a major impact on american life and the stock market crash was its immediate spark, there were many other contributing factors that eventually came from the unfair spread of money and power in the politics and classes of America. In fact, the top 0.1 percent of American families had a total income equal to that of the bottom 42 percent . Socially, people began to buy more than what they could afford, especially on "credit , which led to many problems at the onset of the Depression. Farmers, such as the fictional Joads that Steinbeck created, faced hardships before the Depression, with competition high and prices extremely low. Investment in stocks was high, and since prosperity just seemed to grow and grow, many thought it was an easy way to success. The economic collapse was especially worse when combined with the severe drought that was occurring across the Great Plains, coming to be known as the Dust Bowl. It was from this that Steinbeck's great works were born from the great misfortune of the oklahoma