John Steinbeck wrote the novel The Grapes of Wrath in 1939. He grew up with a fairly stable childhood and went on to study at Stanford. Although he did not experience the atrocities that many of the lower class Americans did during the Depression first hand, he wrote about them. The San Francisco News asked Steinbeck to investigate the conditions of the migrant camps in 1936 which resulted in his interest in the migrant families.When Steinbeck saw how the migrant families lived he was appalled and angered by the counties and states that would do nothing to help the starving families. He wrote the novel to show readers authentic details of how life was lived for the migrant families trying to find work during the Depression. In the novel The
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During this time, the roles of women dramatically changed. While a multitude of men struggled with the failure of losing income, many women became empowered as they helped keep the house afloat by substituting their work for products they used to buy such as, making bread instead of buying it or making new clothing with used material (Ware 1). Although women did not typically get traditional jobs during the Depression, they helped save money in the home and support their children and husbands emotionally.The government also made an effort to help support the people. Franklin Roosevelt came up with the New Deal during this time which introduced types of social and economic reform (Hardman 2). Parts of the New Deal were laws that helped banks to reopen as soon as they were stable. These reforms made by the New Deal gave American people hope and helped their situations during the depression. During this time farmers were also hit hard as many of them lost good land and became stuck in what is known as The Dust Bowl. Across the Great Plains a massive drought ruined the farmland and created massive amounts of dust (Holley 1). Due to the lack of water and the dust the land would not produce product for the farmers. This caused a whole new problem for the farmers of America as they went broke and many lost their homes. The Great Depression was an extremely difficult time in American …show more content…
Although the book is fiction, it gives realistic insight as to how families were living and the obscenities that they were forced to endure. Through his novel he showed how vehement the migrant families were and explored different facets of their lives. He showed how the roles of women were affected and how their roles were altered and the struggles of the families leaving the dust bowl. He also discussed how the Government tried to help mitigate the harsh living circumstances that were a part of the 1930s. Steinbeck enlightens readers with his novel by showing different details of the live’s of the American farming families during the
During this time, the roles of women dramatically changed. While a multitude of men struggled with the failure of losing income, many women became empowered as they helped keep the house afloat by substituting their work for products they used to buy such as, making bread instead of buying it or making new clothing with used material (Ware 1). Although women did not typically get traditional jobs during the Depression, they helped save money in the home and support their children and husbands emotionally.The government also made an effort to help support the people. Franklin Roosevelt came up with the New Deal during this time which introduced types of social and economic reform (Hardman 2). Parts of the New Deal were laws that helped banks to reopen as soon as they were stable. These reforms made by the New Deal gave American people hope and helped their situations during the depression. During this time farmers were also hit hard as many of them lost good land and became stuck in what is known as The Dust Bowl. Across the Great Plains a massive drought ruined the farmland and created massive amounts of dust (Holley 1). Due to the lack of water and the dust the land would not produce product for the farmers. This caused a whole new problem for the farmers of America as they went broke and many lost their homes. The Great Depression was an extremely difficult time in American …show more content…
Although the book is fiction, it gives realistic insight as to how families were living and the obscenities that they were forced to endure. Through his novel he showed how vehement the migrant families were and explored different facets of their lives. He showed how the roles of women were affected and how their roles were altered and the struggles of the families leaving the dust bowl. He also discussed how the Government tried to help mitigate the harsh living circumstances that were a part of the 1930s. Steinbeck enlightens readers with his novel by showing different details of the live’s of the American farming families during the