Introduction
John Steinbeck best-selling novel the Grapes of Wrath published in 1939 evokes the economic injustices meted on immigrant farmers due to the harshness of the great depression. It arouses the sympathy and gives the reader the empathetic view of the struggles of the migrant farmworkers. It became to be known as an American classic novel.
The Grapes of Wrath
In the theme of economic injustice, John Steinbeck novel the Grapes of Wrath ends in a rather sad and idiosyncratic way. Steinbeck’s controversial book raise questions on economic justice of the three generations of the Joad family. They are seeking a decent lie in the fertile land o the California state by joining other many families seeking to get employed in the farms. The experience seeks to transform them from an “I” perspective to a “We” perspective. The corporations of people were spontaneous in a sharp contrast to big business ruthlessness and the sad choices of the mantra that a “fella got to eat” which shows a continual refrain and an economic injustice (Tovino and Stacey, 233). Casy, the strike leader wonders of one big soul everybody is a part of. On the journey to the Promised Land, the strike leader, Casy, and other characters in the book confronts the natural forces and the unfair and dehumanizing social and economic institutions that propagates economic injustices.
Casy, the strike leader is martyred as he fights for the farmers who have lost their arms and arable lands to drought and the brutal exploitation of migrant laborers. Tom Joad, who is greatest disciple who has also served time murders another man who he believes is the one responsible for Casys death. In his passionate conviction, Tom asserts that “wherever there is a fight so that the poor and hungry people can eat, I will be there”. This shows a greater gap in economic levels between people although killing is never justified. He provides an anticlimax to the end of the novel leaving the reader with an open interpretation on the economic injustice of the migrant farmworkers. The ending part of the novel occurs when the Joad family has to move away from their boxcar due to six days of continued flooding.
Due to economic injustice at this point, the Joad family has encountered numerous challenges and problems that seem unending. When there was a little glimpse of hope for the family, something mysterious came up and tears down the ray of hope. For example, In their state of California where they were residing, it was literally impossible to find a job for the family (Rosner and David, 44). In different occasions, they would spot invitations and flyers to work in different farms only to get there and have a major disappointment. In one case of the peach farm, the family arrives at the farm only to find an angry crowd of protestors demonstrating.
Roger and Me
The Michael Moore film Roger and Me remains a documentary of the post-industrial America. It is a chilling and heartwarming film portraying the effects of altering the economic order of the underlying society. The people lives are completely transformed through the economic alteration. Watching the film today, it shows how the more the change in the society occurs the more the things remain normal. What is most depressing in the movie perhaps is how in the 80’s factory work was being taken to poor countries making it possible or the working class people in America to lose their jobs to the poor people from the countries the work is shipped to (Kael and Pauline, 195). The film shows executives in different countries firing thousands and hundreds of employees only to give themselves higher raises and remunerations. The middle class American society was completely destroyed due to economic injustices they aced. The working class America was affected the most due to loss of livelihoods. The film showed that the American Dream was not only a fallacy, a scam and a fantasy build for the wealthy and the fortunate but a vision of economic freedom and prosperity for every citizen of America. The closure of Factories in his hometown of Flint leads to increased poverty, unemployment, increased crimes and desolate houses.
Closure of factories like the GM to a greater extent is done due to Polarization between workers and their managers due to the inequality gap in economic resources between the worse o and the better in the society. Greed and wealth have greatly modified the minds of the directors and the managers of the factories while poverty and lack of money has a similar effect on the poor and unemployed. In the interactions between the cultural influences and the economy one may try to get an understanding why the rich get richer while the poor get even poorer. The closing remarks by Moore the perfect application of the Myrdal’s theory in economic processes.
Native son
The Native son novel is a detailed examination of the nature of communism and capitalism in Chicago in the 1930s. It is a time that greatly impacted by the agitation of the rights of workers over the person or organization that is meant to control the means of production. Bigger is caught in the competing worldviews of the societal status quo. Although Bigger expresses his frustration on the impact of societal inequality, it is much later that he articulates his frustrations in economic terms. On one end of the capitalistic spectrum and profit creations, the Dalton family and especially Mr. Henry Dalton embodies the real capitalist. He makes a lot of profits which is distributed to a small number of people. Mr. Dalton is a rapacious capitalist. He has the intention of reinvesting back the profits from his reals estates in black communities.
He is also very predjudist and uses the earnings to insulate his family from the misery of the people living in the blacks zones (McCann and Bryan, 65). Mrs. Dalton is also a beneficiary of the capitalist system, who intends to speak for the black people interest. However her desire to help is a manifestation of the privileges of some class of people especially the wealth and the white privilege. Mary is an embodiment of the communism perspective and sympathizes with the black communities who are economically inferior and are treated unequally by the white privileged communities.
Conclusion
In all the novels and films, the middle class American society was completely destroyed due to economic injustices they faced. The working class America was affected the most due to loss of livelihoods. The minority like blacks are economically disadvantaged and treated unfairly. The farmers are only paid a meager wage of five cents for picking a crate o peaches which is really low. As the struggle continues for the family to hold together and settle down, they come across a little boy and a dying old man. Despite the challenges the Joad family faces, they have a big heart to help the man and his little boy. Despite their anger and frustrations about the California state of economy, it did not stop them from helping the dying old man and the little boy due to their unselfish acts. This signifies that there is a sign of hope for the future despite the recession and the great depression. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Works cited
Kael, Pauline. “Roger & Me.” Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films about Labor (2018): 320.
McCann, Bryan J. “Dialoging with Bigger Thomas: A Reception History of Richard Wright’s Native Son.” Advances in the History of Rhetoric 22.1 (2019): 92-114.
Tovino, Stacey A. “The grapes of wrath: On the health of immigration detainees.” BCL Rev. 57 (2016): 167.
Rosner, David. “Flint, Michigan: A century of environmental injustice.” (2016): 200-201.
