Topic > Race and Race in The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath attempts to show the difference between groups of people and characters along the lines of race, class, and religion, which are discussed in this article. The Okies' racial status as Anglo-Americans seemed to distinguish them from other immigrant workers. Steinbeck uses their candor to further strengthen his fortune. The "Harvest Gypsies" articles highlight the migrants' Anglo-Saxon heritage: their names "prove that they are of English, German and Scandinavian origin". For these families living in provincial regions, with names like “Munns, Holbrooks, Hansens, Schmidts,” the system of majoritarian rule was “simply not conceivable, however inevitable” (Hicks, 1939). Steinbeck announces that "this new race" is in California forever, unlike past gatherings of migrants who were extradited when they were no longer within reach; as a result, he predicts, the state will have to adapt its framework to suit them. Since they are Americans, "the old routines of coercion, starvation wages, incarceration, beatings and intimidation will not work." The Grapes of Wrath offers a challenge to working-class readers to join the working population, subjects of the story, arguing that the desolation of capital accumulation is felt throughout society, even more keenly on penniless migrant workers . Grapes of Wrath is both a laudable radical investigation into the abuses of horticultural workers and the 1930s climax of verifiable racism centered on whites as victimized people. The novel barely specifies the Mexican and Filipino migrant workers who commanded the fields and plantations of California in the late 1930s, suggesting instead that the Anglo-Saxons... middle of paper... safeguarded the possibility of achieving unionization, Steinbeck recommends the structuring of a "transitional work committee", which would finally function like longshoremen's workrooms and could also set compensation requirements. At the same time, the State will begin to denounce the "dangerous fascist rallies", involving the Associated Farmers, under the same criminal laws against trade unionism used against labor organisation. Ultimately, Steinbeck argues that shielding the changes will force an "aggressor and a vigilant association of white-collar class individuals, workers, instructors, skilled workers, and liberals to fight the fascist forces and uphold this state in an equitable structure." He warns that not making these changes could result in the Okies turning into “an armed force determined by misery and contempt to take what they need”.."