The Grapes of Wrath in Context

Many would argue that The Grapes of Wrath is an indictment of the grievous range of ways humanity has despoiled the natural world. Natural disasters are amplified by poor land-use practices, rapacious greed, and technological arrogance in the novel and film adaptation. By highlighting environmental issues, however, The Grapes of Wrath also illustrates the ongoing power of its environmental legal context.

Drought serves as the protagonist in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and its John Ford film adaptation of 1940. But the film and novel also draw on environmental history and environmental law and highlight America’s conflicting views of water rights, views almost always grounded in the nineteenth-century American drive for progress.





The Homestead Act of 1862, along with the Preemptive Act of 1841 contributed to these progressive views. It provided land for immigrants, freed slaves, and poor farmers from the East. But it also opened up land opportunities for corporate farmers and ranchers.



But the Desert Land Act of 1877 also helped big ranchers secure 640 acres more from each of their proxy, as long as they promised to irrigate at least part of it (212-213). By controlling the land, these corporate barons also controlled the water. The Homestead Act and the Desert Land Acts provided opportunities for individuals to stake a claim on lands that provided the only access to water in the region (Rivers of Empire 19).




Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath draws on this context. Influenced by activist goals and anti-corporate philosophy and media, Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath not only to entertain but also to send a message condemning corporate barons and uplifting their victims. The Grapes of Wrath accurately demonstrates the multiple ways Dust Bowl Refugees suffered. The novel and film also broadcast the perils of the dust bowl migration. The film and novel also support labor and labor unions and demonstrate the dangerous consequences of slack labor laws.  Most importantly, the film and novel underline alternatives to corporate farming, such as Tom Collins’ Farm Security Association  (FSA) Camp.


 

The Grapes of Wrath is the story of a family’s struggle for survival in the Promised Land. It is the story of migrants’ struggle to survive. But it is also the story of a nation, America. Through allusions to Christ, the Israelites, and the great Exodus, The Grapes of Wrath becomes a story of our quest for profound comprehension of our commitment to our fellow men and the earth we inhabit. In the Age of Anthropocentric climate change, The Grapes of Wrath also illustrates the ongoing power of its environmental legal context.