Globally, millions of impoverished families struggle with survival. Measly finances create some of the difficulties in life. Historically, immigrant workers of the early 1900’s suffered from meager finances. Unfortunately, many Americans had no awareness of the disturbing struggles that immigrant workers endured. The Grapes of Wrath and The Jungle revealed poor laborers’ treacherous living condition to oblivious Americans. Both John Steinbeck and Upton Sinclair, authors of The Grapes of Wrath and The Jungle, exploited the dehumanization and poor living conditions of impoverished Americans through the utilization of disturbing imagery, extended metaphors, and distressing details.
To commence, John Steinbeck, author of The Grapes of Wrath , “muckraked” the inhumane living conditions through disturbing imagery. In order for Steinbeck to reveal the horror of labor and dwelling conditions, he depicted gruesome descriptions that exposed disturbing settings to alarm readers of the terrifying conditions that impoverished Americans endured daily. Within the plot of The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck began the novel with a description of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. Unfortunately for the impoverished immigrant laborers, dust within Oklahoma existed as an unsolvable problem for meager immigrant families. Winds turned dust dunes into tempests of dust, deadly for the people to breathe. Tempests of sand destroyed homes, severely injured people, and destroyed farmers’ crops (Steinbeck 5-6). Because crops, corn specifically, ended up completely destroyed, farmers had no ability to earn enough profit to sustain adequate living, resulting in many home and tenant evictions. Steinbeck desired to concern readers that no one with adequate finances offered any aid to the impoverished Americans. Thus, immigrant laborers ended up in a trap and had no ability to escape the poverty that encompassed them. Not only did Steinbeck utilize distressing imagery of the Dust Bowl for exposure of inhumane impoverished American living conditions, he also described the subpar labor camp dwelling conditions. “The first house was nondescript. The south wall was made of three sheets of rusty corrugated iron, the east wall a square of moldy carpet tacked between two boards, the north wall a strip of roofing paper and a strip of tattered canvas, and the west wall six pieces of gunny sacking. Over the square frame, on untrimmed willow limbs, grass had been piled, not thatched, but heaped up in a low mound” (Steinbeck 328). Author Steinbeck created an unsettling visual imagery with negatively connotated diction. For example, words like“rusty”, “corrugated”, “moldy, and “tattered” caused the reader to visualize the inhumane conditions of labor camp dwellings. Shifting focus towards dehumanization of life conditions to The Jungle, Sinclair also utilized frightening descriptive imagery. The author emphasized great focus on inhumane working procedure conditions. For example, Upton Sinclair provided an extremely vivid description of the disgustingness of …show more content…
Explicating Steinbeck’s plot, he portrayed American immigrant workers to powerless slaves serving the bank, which Steinbeck metaphorically compared to a monster. “ These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time” (Steinbeck 43). Through the previous quote, author Steinbeck revealed to readers that tenant owners were under absolute control of the bank, were forced to pay wages towards it to fight inevitable eviction, and could do nothing against it, for the immigrant were dehumanized to slaves from their life conditions. Another situation where American laborers disturbing life conditions were revealed was through the tractor driver that evicted the tenant workers in the expository chapter five. “The man sitting in the iron did not look like a man; gloved, goggle, rubber dust mask over nose and mouth, he was part of the monster, a robot in the seat” (Steinbeck 48). Shockingly, when the tractor driver goes to evict the tenant workers, they know him as Joe Davis’s boy. When the tractor drivers pleaded with the tractor driver not to evict them, he explained that he was just doing what he needs to do in order to stay alive, even if it meant bringing others down in the effort. This disturbing metaphor included in the plot revealed to readers that the bank-and other affluent company owners- dominate the poor, and the impoverished have to attempt everything that they can to survive, even if it means hurting friends or
To commence, John Steinbeck, author of The Grapes of Wrath , “muckraked” the inhumane living conditions through disturbing imagery. In order for Steinbeck to reveal the horror of labor and dwelling conditions, he depicted gruesome descriptions that exposed disturbing settings to alarm readers of the terrifying conditions that impoverished Americans endured daily. Within the plot of The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck began the novel with a description of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. Unfortunately for the impoverished immigrant laborers, dust within Oklahoma existed as an unsolvable problem for meager immigrant families. Winds turned dust dunes into tempests of dust, deadly for the people to breathe. Tempests of sand destroyed homes, severely injured people, and destroyed farmers’ crops (Steinbeck 5-6). Because crops, corn specifically, ended up completely destroyed, farmers had no ability to earn enough profit to sustain adequate living, resulting in many home and tenant evictions. Steinbeck desired to concern readers that no one with adequate finances offered any aid to the impoverished Americans. Thus, immigrant laborers ended up in a trap and had no ability to escape the poverty that encompassed them. Not only did Steinbeck utilize distressing imagery of the Dust Bowl for exposure of inhumane impoverished American living conditions, he also described the subpar labor camp dwelling conditions. “The first house was nondescript. The south wall was made of three sheets of rusty corrugated iron, the east wall a square of moldy carpet tacked between two boards, the north wall a strip of roofing paper and a strip of tattered canvas, and the west wall six pieces of gunny sacking. Over the square frame, on untrimmed willow limbs, grass had been piled, not thatched, but heaped up in a low mound” (Steinbeck 328). Author Steinbeck created an unsettling visual imagery with negatively connotated diction. For example, words like“rusty”, “corrugated”, “moldy, and “tattered” caused the reader to visualize the inhumane conditions of labor camp dwellings. Shifting focus towards dehumanization of life conditions to The Jungle, Sinclair also utilized frightening descriptive imagery. The author emphasized great focus on inhumane working procedure conditions. For example, Upton Sinclair provided an extremely vivid description of the disgustingness of …show more content…
Explicating Steinbeck’s plot, he portrayed American immigrant workers to powerless slaves serving the bank, which Steinbeck metaphorically compared to a monster. “ These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time” (Steinbeck 43). Through the previous quote, author Steinbeck revealed to readers that tenant owners were under absolute control of the bank, were forced to pay wages towards it to fight inevitable eviction, and could do nothing against it, for the immigrant were dehumanized to slaves from their life conditions. Another situation where American laborers disturbing life conditions were revealed was through the tractor driver that evicted the tenant workers in the expository chapter five. “The man sitting in the iron did not look like a man; gloved, goggle, rubber dust mask over nose and mouth, he was part of the monster, a robot in the seat” (Steinbeck 48). Shockingly, when the tractor driver goes to evict the tenant workers, they know him as Joe Davis’s boy. When the tractor drivers pleaded with the tractor driver not to evict them, he explained that he was just doing what he needs to do in order to stay alive, even if it meant bringing others down in the effort. This disturbing metaphor included in the plot revealed to readers that the bank-and other affluent company owners- dominate the poor, and the impoverished have to attempt everything that they can to survive, even if it means hurting friends or