The Grapes of Wall Street

I had to write a paper where I had to relate a current injustice in society to the historical (yet fictitious) struggles of the novel "The Grapes of Wrath." I'm going to be completely honest with you: the entire time that we were reading this book in class, I didn't read a single page of it. No on did. We all admit that we sparknoted each chapter. We didn't tell the teacher this because she seemed to be a die-hard fan of this book. But it's super difficult to read since the characters talk in the strongest of slang varieties of the 1930's. Not to mention, I had other things to do and spend my time on then to strain my brain reading about the great depression. But I did draw a correlation between the story anf Occupy Wall Street. So that's what I wrote about.

The Grapes of Wall Street

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, tells the story of small town farmers that become impoverished when their land had been taken over by large businesses looking to make a  profit.  This novel is a foreshadowing representation of the capitalist nation that America has become today.  Many people are experiencing the same hardships as the people depicted in this fictitious perspective of the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s, such as being homeless and experiencing famine and a lack of resources in general for a person to adequately live on.  Both time periods found an effective use in the right to free speech in the form of protesting the unjust societies they lived in.  In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses the economic imbalance of the 20th century to develop a solution to aid in equal earnings in the future.

The 1930s were referred to as the Dust Bowl because the lack of precipitation led to a decrease in hydration in vegetation, leaving nothing just dry dirt or dust.  People were having difficulty being able to harvest crops and develop farmland to provide for the people or even themselves.  It became increasingly difficult for people to find work and wages that would be enough to survive off of.  One person would earn less than a dollar for a hard day’s work.  People were lucky to earn three dollars for work. A tractor driver from the novel said, "Three dollars a day. I got damn sick of creeping for my dinner – and not getting it. I got a wife and kids. We got to eat. Three dollars a day. Is that right?" (Steinbeck 37)  The big corporations that they were working for were making all of the money and only providing portions to the people.  This period of time was also a part of the Great Depression, the lowest economic and political point in American History.

The conflicts faced in The Grapes of Wrath seemed to pave a path for financial hardships up to modern times.  The country is set up in terms of socioeconomic statuses that people innately benefit/suffer from.  Ultimately, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Karl Marx would refer to this phrase as proof in the theory of the Law of Increasing Poverty.  The majority of people fall under a socio economic status of unrepayable debt and the incapability of progression to affluence due to their income only providing basic needs for stability.  This puts middle (and inevitably lower) class America in a category of consistent poverty. Minorities also are more likely to fall under the category of lack in terms of income, stemming into the inability to even find work due to personal bias and the groups’ actual incapability to work in said field due to a chain reaction of inadequate resources (mainly in education).  This is an example of Social Darwinism in terms of the constant prosperity of the “stronger” in the economy as opposed to the prevailing lack in the “weaker” people who can barely provide.  “We can't depend on it. The bank – the monster – has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size” (Steinbeck 32).

Economic inequality is a recurring issue in history nation and worldwide.  In order for groups of people to get their points across to the people in power were through protests.  In The Grapes of Wrath, the workers made a union and demonstrated their movement through a “turkey hunt,” walking through town with rifles in formation. They could not be accused of being threatening to anyone, but obviously successfully sent a message of strength and power against the bigger man. "They hate you 'cause they're scairt. They know a hungry fella gonna get food even if he got to take it. They know that fallow lan' s a sin an' somebody' gonna take it" (Steinbeck 462). In modern times, the movement of “Occupy Wall Street” was based on a series of protests outside of city halls and stock market establishments to express the negative impact their inability to properly disperse money amongst the people have.  The concept revolves around the 99% (the majority of American citizens) being conned by the 1% (big name stockholders and the richest people in the country holding all the money for themselves).

The idea of capitalism may be prevalent in the economic structure of America indefinitely.  Issues are not as bad as the times of The Grapes of Wrath, and are also steadily leading to resolution.  Today, the followers of the Occupy Wall Street movement support presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.  They appreciate his socialist stand on having the government function to benefit all citizens of the United states instead of a small group benefiting or a particular group being punished by said decision.  Charles Lechner, member of the movement, said, "Occupy was a reaction to the financial collapse, to what happened because of Wall Street's power to destroy the economy, and Bernie's campaign is the one that has been consistently focused on the role of the '1 Percent,' large corporations and financial institutions." (Krieg) Occupy Wall Street itself had fizzled out over time after its mass appeal after its prime in 2011.  Micah White, author of The End of Protests, said, “Occupy Wall Street was a constructive failure that exposed the limits of protest at the same time as it revealed a practical way forward. On the horizon are increasingly sophisticated movements that will emerge in a bid to dominate elections, govern cities and reorient the way we live” (Occupy Wall Street).  There may be no actual end to the bias in economic prosperity in our country.  However, so long as the ability to make our voices heard remains existent in the face of contrast, we can move towards a more equal system of people and currency.

Works Cited

“The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution from the Co-creator of Occupy Wall Street.” Occupy Wall Street. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.

“The Grapes of Wrath Wealth Quotes.” Shmoop. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2016.

Heffner, Thomas. “Economic Problems Facing the US.” Economy In Crisis. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2016.

“John Steinbeck and Occupy Wall Street.” Politics and its Discontents. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.

Krieg, Gregory. “Occupy Wall Street Rises up for Sanders.” CNN Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.

Levitin, Michael. “The Triumph of Occupy Wall Street.” The Atlantic. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.