People and Injustice

Parvaneh Ashktorab

Stacey Knapp

English 1B

19 December 2011                                                                                                              

People and Injustice

                John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas, a city in the state of California. He grew up with his family who worked on a farm in a valley by the coast. Steinbeck entered high school at age fifteen while he lived in his hometown Salinas, California. He had decided to become a professional writer, but his first novel was not published until he was twenty seven years old in 1929. During that time the Stock Market crashed and brought on the Great Depression. He became a professional writer in 1930, which was the period during the Great Depression, until his death in 1968 (Steinbeck vii). Steinbeck’s book, In Dubious Battle was rejected by the publisher Pascal Covici at Viking Press (viii). The publisher considered the injustices ideology of the strike planner inaccurate and Covici did not know who Steinbeck was and what his viewpoint regarding the Great Depression was (ix). Steinbeck offered to publish In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath because he wanted to show the situations of many suffering farmers. During the Great Depression, these farmers and poor persons were discriminated against, were given minimum wages and became slaves to wealthy individuals. Throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s, people wanted the freedom and basic right to their pursuit of happiness, and obtain higher wages for their skills and abilities; even today, in the  21^stcentury these complicated situations have not changed and are making the poor people poorer and rich people richer as demonstrated by the Occupy movement.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

According to John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle, during the Great Depression, there were many people who suffered while they worked in 1930. There were people who worked for the wealthy that did not understand the unfair life of farmers. Jim was one of the characters In Dubious Battle who was touched by this unjust situation.  Jim had a miserable personal life. He was ashamed of his family’s life. His mom had a weak personality and she always obeyed her husband. At that time, women did not have any power, and they had to zip their lips and stay quiet. For example, his mom wanted to practice her religion and participate in church, but her husband did not allow her to practice her catholic religion so she could not go to church. Jim had a father who worked and got drunk at various times (13). Jim’s father was beaten by the police and hated to work for the government because he was forced to work like a slave.

For this reason, Jim wanted to do something. He observed his family life and those lives around him and felt compelled to change this unfair situation. Unfortunately, while Jim was working at Tumlman’s Department store, he went out to look at a crowded street; he climbed on a big tree to see well. And then, he heard a sound from behind, a cop slugged and arrested him (15). Jim was arrested because of vagrancy, during that time Jim had job and he called his boss Webb to explain to the sergeant that he was not a vagrant “and then Webb said he never heard of me. So I got the rap” (15). For Jim, this was a turning point for him; from this moment he decided to get serious about his communist ideology and work on that.

When Jim was released from jail after being arrested for vagrancy, he met Mac, who had organized a big party among farmers that followed ideas of justice. Mac is one of the persons in charge of organizing protests. He was sent by the party to gather the men in Torgas Valley, and go on an angry strike for higher wages. At that time farmers usually had a hard job with low wages. Jim knew he could not stand up against the government alone; he had to find a party which was more organized, so he joined Mac’s party. They established a gathering in order to have a strike against the government. Mac says, “It’s like this, by tomorrow a couple of thousand men will be on strike, and the apple picking will stop” (118). Mac had read a newspaper which got him angry that date. On the paper the editor wrote “when our highways are no longer safe for American citizen, or their homes safe firebrands, we believe the time for action has come” (298). Although, Mac got angry, he decided to act with his friends, Jim, Harry Nilson, and Dick. They participated in the strike because the capitalists kept all farmers working like servants and Jim thought that was an injustice and discriminatory. On the other hand, he believed the communist ideology opened windows with the justice viewpoint that might have helped and provided better life for farmers, workers, and poor people.

Besides the book In Dubious Battle, Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath also focuses on the lives of farmers and workers who were poor during the 20th century, at the same time of the Great Depression. In the book, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses the Joad family, a very poor and broke family in Oklahoma City, to describe the troubles of thousands of Dust Bowl farmers. Jim was not only thinking about himself and his family; he also wanted to find a partner to help him search for a way to assist other poor people who were struggling for their lives as well.

Although there were many people who did struggle and challenge themselves to get fair wages to live simple lives, they could not. In this book, there are many examples of living in hard situations. The powerful and clear example is about a turtle on his back that cannot turn back and continue on his way. “But his extended foot [swings] slowly up and down like in the tempo” (Steinbeck 25). The life of all farmers was the same as the turtle flipped on his back; there was no way to get back on the right path to survive. Joad and his family were farmers who were in stuck in poverty and wanted to have improve their lives.

 For this reason, Joad’s family wanted to move from their hometown in Oklahoma to California to find a better job for their living; it took a long time to get there. On the way, they had many difficulties while they traveled with their truck. During this time, they stopped to fix their truck, and the repairman would tearfully talk of the injustices of his job. Tom Joad and Casy, who was a friend of Tom Joad, told the man they were going to California for a job. The repairman told them that there were no jobs in California, despite what the newspapers had promised. They may need 800 workers, but 20,000 workers showed up already. (259)

The repairman continues telling them about his family. His wife and children starved to death because he took them to find work in California, but Casy told him that the Joads may have a different experience than the man did. When many families moved to California, they realized that people have many social issues such as the battle between poor and rich people. On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work and for food. And the anger began to ferment (388). “In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage” (477). As a matter of fact, people in Oklahoma city struggled to have a basic living; they did not know how they could survive because they did not have anything to eat.                                                                                                                     

Despite this Great Depression occurring many years ago, the same situations are happening today in 2011 in the United States. People are protesting against their unjust situation. They are not happy with their government and they want to, by protesting, show they are suffering with these circumstances. Poor people are getting poorer and the rich people are getting richer.

 There are so many mob groups and protesters that are angry with the economic policy that the government is running in this country. For example, there are many protests nearby the San Jose, San Francisco and Berkley area. According to the news on August 15, 2011, Jeyon Cochran, a protester, stood in the doorway of the Bay Area Rapid Transit train at the San Francisco Civic Center. His strategy was to protest public safety on train platforms (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu).

 Of course, there are many other groups who have huge amounts of protesters, such as students and ordinary individuals from the middle and working classes, who have been demonstrating in Berkley in the city of Oakland. Those protesters are likely to move forward with a variety of plans to try and enforce their demands on the transit system to apply a just rule in the Bay Area of California.

According to the New York Times, people in New York City are protesting for their rights and angry at these institutions. These protesters are acting the same way as the protesters during the Great Depression in 1930. At this time, “the protesters themselves have also criticized media first for ostensibly ignoring the movement and then for marginalizing it” (Stelter). They are angry because they want to protest and then accomplish their needs in the twenty-first century. People believe the system only serves the rich. This situation is unfair because the government does not care about those who belong to the middle and lower class. The protesters at Wall Street are not just demanding change; they are also demanding wage increase, more jobs, and overall, financial help. If the government were to help these individuals, they would be able to find jobs, pay their debts, and keep their homes. Essentially, people who are in the middle and lower class are gathering together because of class and wealth discrimination.     

In conclusion, I discovered that these two books, In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath share the same scenario and portrays the same situation as that of 1930 during the Great Depression. Most of the people had awful conditions; there was no way to have a simple and relaxed life. They were forced to perform tough labor for small wages. In 2011, we can see the same problem as before; many people are suffering from injustices and unequal treatment. They cannot fight back and are powerless against the government and the wealthy class. The government should take action and help these middle and lower class individuals because people have the Constitutional right to live comfortably and happily in the United States of America.

                                                      

Work Cited

Introduction. French. Warren. In Dubious Battle. New York: Viking Press, 1975. N.xxix. print.

Malia. Wollan, Malia. "Updates on Occupy Oakland Protest." thelede.blogs.nytimes. (2011): 1. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com>.

Steinbeck, John. . In Dubious Battle. The United State of America: Viking Press, 1979. 349.                

Print.

 Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. The United State of America: Penguin Books , 1976.

            618. Print.

 Stelter, Brain. "Protest puts coverage on spotlight." New York Times. (20 Nov 2011): n. page. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <New York Times.com>.