Soil Erosion In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

“The dawn came, but no day. In the gray sky a red sun appeared, a dim red circle that gave a little light, like dusk: and as that day advanced, the dusk slipped back toward darkness, and the wind cried and whimpered over the fallen corn.” (Steinbeck 2-3) This is a paragraph taken from John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, a story about a family who lives during the Dust Bowl, loses their farm due to it, and has to move to California. During the course of history, the issue of soil erosion has had a lasting impact on the United States of America's economy and society and the tragedy of the Dust Bowl being a prime example of it.
The Dust Bowl was the result of poor soil conservation and poor weather. Dust storms in the 1860s became a common …show more content…
Hugh Bennett published with the help of W.R. Chapline in April of 1928 a book called Soil Erosion: A National Menace about how soil erosion was becoming a major problem because of how it was affecting the agriculture. In this he states, “What would be the feeling of this Nation should a foreign nation suddenly enter the United States and destroy 90,000 acres of land, as erosion has been allowed to do in a single county?” (Bennett and Chapline 23) He later became the first leader of the Soil Conservation Service and is one of the most influential figures in the ongoing research of soil conservation.
While Franklin D. Roosevelt was campaigning for presidency during the early 1930s, he proposed the idea of creating ways of conserving soil and during his presidency he signed a legislation that was used to conserve soil erosion and help natural resources. About 3 years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill made by Congress, that eventually created the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), soil erosion had dropped a reported 65 percent in the United States (Politico.com). The SCS later became known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service and still works