On The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Posted by Smarika.
Lately, I have been interested in historical fiction from the viewpoint of the subaltern. Hence I'd bought The Grapes of Wrath earlier this year, and finally got to reading it now.
The book essentially is about the Depression Years in the midwest US after the World War I, spinning a tale about the Joad family, and their migration towards the West in all those lean years. But all this is an objective reading. The greatness of the book arises from the way it weaves a tale which has been called a "true tribute to humanity", and this indeed is what made it deserving of the Nobel.
The book describes in minute detail each trial and tribulation of the Joad family- the pain of leaving a home which they have known as home for generations, the tough journey to the West, which I thought in many ways had been likened to the journey of Jews for the Promised Land (Grapes...also has a desert (Arizona) in between), except that the Promised Land never really comes. Because farther west, there is no unemployment, only more degradation. This in fact, is a story of the corporation, and how it came to be more important than real human life. And not one, but thousands of human lives. The question which the author poses is Why? Why is the corporation more important than human lives? Why is it controlling humanity, just to serve its own growth? Though on the face of it, the book might appear to be a communist agenda, a careful reading might bring one to a different conclusion. For Steinbeck illustrates how corporate profit does not even make the capitalists happy-- rather breeds greater insecurities, and therefore cannot be viewed merely in terms of a class struggle. While capitalists might be getting food and luxuries and comfort, all this is still not enough to make them human, for they derive no happiness from their work, no joy from life. Their scraping for more capital is not part of a human desire, but part of a compulsion imposed upon them by the concept of corporation. All this makes one wonder where our system, where abstract concepts are prioritised over real human value, stands?
Most importantly, Grapes of Wrath is a timeless, and hence a classic composition, and finds relevance even in contemporary times, if not more so. In a world where we are sucked in by work and jobs for security, rather than helping our work define us. For humans always find more meaning in creating something which they deem bigger than themselves. Yet they are prevented from creating such work, and forced to labour over something they feel little or no ownership for security. This is when the spirit of humanity breaks. And IMO, that's the whole point of Steinbeck in this book. The importance of work in human life, and not a job.
