John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is a moving account of the social plight of Dustbowl farmers and is widely considered an American classic. The novel takes place during the depression of the 1930s in Oklahoma and all points west to California. Steinbeck uses the Joad family as a specific example of the general plight of the poor farmers. The Joads are forced off of their farm in Oklahoma by the banks and …showed first 75 words of 1506 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1506 total…at the government camp and the strike at the peach orchards also emphasize unity. At times in his narrative Steinbeck even blatantly explains his philosophies of group power and shared burden. As one critic puts it “The family of man is even more than a necessity for the Joads: it is an ideal of the novel” (Bowden 199). Steinbeck truly succeeds in giving the reader the message that when united people stand, but divided they fall.