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Between the world wars Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and the Buildup to the Second World War
The Jungle (1906) • portrayed the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities. The main theme of The Jungle is the unjust brutality of laissez faire capitalism. Every event, is chosen deliberately to portray the conditions experienced by immigrant laborers within an inhuman and destructive economic system.
The Great Gatsby • takes place 20 years later and shifts the focus to the destructive and brute force of money on peoples lives at the very top echelons of society
In contrast to the speed and roar of the 1920s and the elite world portrayed in the Great Gatsby • We have the brutal economic & political crises of the 1930s and struggling common folk at the center of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath
As the world was hurtling towards another global conflict • John Steinbeck was finishing The Grapes of Wrath • Like Sinclair’s Jungle, Steinbeck focused on the common folk at the bottom of society
Meet the Author -Born in Salinas, California 1902– Much of his inspiration came from here. -He read the Bible often, which also became an important influence on the style and themes of his fiction. -Wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 -The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. John Steinbeck Feb 27,1902-Dec 20, 1968 “I wrote The Grapes of Wrathin 100 days, but many years of preparation preceded it. It took a long time to get started. The actual writing is the last process.”
Historical Context– The 1930s • Migrant Camps • The Dust Bowl • Trouble for Farmers • The Great Depression • The novel’s setting is the time in which Steinbeck was writing.
The Dust Bowl • Six years of severe droughts hit the Midwest during the 1930s, causing crops to fail. • This, compounded by poor farming practices such as overgrazing and failure to rotate crops, caused the land to wither and dry up.
Migrant Camps • Upon taking office in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched a comprehensive agenda of government programs to combat the Depression. • Collectively called the New Deal, these programs included new federal agencies designed to create employment opportunities and to improve the lot of workers and the unemployed. • Among the many such agencies, the one that most directly touched the Okies was the Farm Security Administration (FSA). • Operating under the authority of the Department of Agriculture, in 1936 the FSA began building camps in California in which the homeless migrants could live. • Ten such camps were finished by the following year. • Steinbeck visited several in his research for The Grapes of Wrath.
Major Themes • Man’s Inhumanity to Man • Survival • Identity—What defines us? • Decline of Family for the Rise of Community • The Saving Power of Family and Friendship • The Dignity of Wrath • The Multiplying Effects of Selfishness and Altruism
Italy becomes Aggressive:Invasion of Ethiopia • Mussolini -new Roman Empire. • In 1935, he invaded Ethiopia & was condemned by Western powers
Hitler defies Versailles • 1935 creation of the Luftwaffe (air force) • draft -army from 100,000 to 550,000 troops. • Saw Western states as weak & would not enforce the restrictions of Versailles • sent troops into the demilitarized Rhineland. • Britain began policy of appeasement.
Failure of League of Nations • No military • US was not a member • No way of enforcing arms limitations on Germany • Economic Depression made many nations fearful of intervention • Fear of another war led to appeasment
Spanish Civil War • General Francisco Francooverthrew the republican govt. with the help of fascist Italy & Germany • France, Britain, and the US hold to a Non-Intervention policy. • The Soviets and other international volunteers were unsuccessful in their attempts to aid the republicans.
Munich Conference: • Hitler demanded the Sudetenland (German speaking area of Czechoslovakia.) • Western powers appeased Hitler in return for his “promise” to not make more demands. • British PM Neville Chamberlain called it “peace for our time.” • But in 1939, Hitler took ALL of western Czechoslovakia
Nazi-Soviet Pact • Fearful of a two-front war, Hitler signed the peace alliance with Communist USSR • Stalin was promised east Poland and the Baltic states • September 1, 1939 Hitler attacked Poland. Britain & France declared war. WWII had begun!
Invasion of Poland • blitzkrieg to conquer in only four weeks • -Lighting War quick attack from land and air • Hitler addressed Reichstag • “I am going into this struggle strong in heart. My whole life has been nothing but a struggle for Germany… I myself am ready to risk my life… I demand the same of everyone else…Anyone who thinks that he can oppose this national commandment… will die!” • Sept. 28, 1939, Germans & Soviets divided a conquered Poland.
Questions • What does the myth of the American Dream say about a person who has not prospered? • Compare and contrast The Grapes of Wrath with The Jungle or The Great Gatsby. • What changes occurred that moved the American economy from the growing consumption and prosperity of the 1920s to the depression of the 1930s? • The League of Nations was intended to prevent another terrible world war – why did it fail? • Why did Hitler want land in the East and why would he make a deal with Stalin?
