Who Is John Steinbeck's Life Reflected In The Grapes Of Wrath

In the context of literature, an author can be influenced by what is happening in the world around them. For example, Jack London wrote stories that took place in Alaska based off of his time in Alaska, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his book The Great Gatsby based off of his experiences in New York circa 1920, and Mark Twain wrote his novels using the same settings as what he was accustomed to in Mississippi. John Steinbeck also fits into this statement, as he was influenced by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl to write his novel, The Grapes of Wrath. The Great Depression devastated the lives of millions of Americans throughout the 1930s. The American Depression officially began October 29th, 1929, with the collapse of the United States stock market. This single event put an end to whatever good times had been going on in the “Roaring ‘20s.” Millions of American people were put out of work with a short time after the crash, and at the peak of the Depression, 12.6 million people had lost their jobs. Compared to the 1.5 million …show more content…
Many people who had been migrants were offended by the term “Okie,” which was constantly used throughout the book. However, many critics took a second look at the book, and the novel was awarded with a Pulitzer Prize in 1940 (Steinbeck 2359). In the same year, the novel gained a movie adaptation (Welsch). John Steinbeck’s writing was strongly impacted by the Great Depression. The experiences he encountered during this time period directly related to what happened during the Depression. In addition, the events that occurred in his book were some of the same things that happened in the lives of migrant workers. His work brought much well deserved attention to the terrible experiences to the migrant workers in the late 1930s. Because of what he encountered during the Depression, Steinbeck became one of the many great writers that was influenced by the world around