Realism In The Grapes Of Wrath

In Chris Vials’s introduction to Realism for the Masses, Vials discusses John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and how it was vaulted as the prime example of realism in the mid-twentieth century. While discussing the impact this novel had on the nation, Vials brings to the reader’s attention the lack of racial diversity in the novel. Prior to this, Vials gives a specific characteristics of what he has described as a hybrid genre of realism, which he has christened mass-mediated realism. Among these qualities include “a focus on ‘ordinary’ individuals their vernacular culture; a placement of these individuals in specific contemporary (or near contemporary), [and] sociohistorical contexts, ones that are not mere backdrops but influence the characters …show more content…
In order to realistically portray this time period and those events, it would have been necessary to include the Hispanic workers who were a part of those strikes. Therefore, one must ask why Steinbeck seems to avoid making the minorities who were affected another face of the time period. To envision a novel where the white proletariat would represent an entire nation and not address the minority members of the proletariat would make the novel less realist because it would depict America as mono-racial, and would inevitable lessen the complexity of the characters. I would not argue that it would diminish the complexity that Steinbeck does imbue in his characters, but to ignore how the Mexican’s who were active in those strikes were coping, or how they would have interacted with the family, could create rips in the realist fabric that is supposed to cover the text. When compared to Carlos “Freedom from Want,” which does attempt to be multiracial and to be inclusive, but does not reach the notoriety of Grapes of Wrath, it could be said