Grapes of Wrath Essay: Steinbecks Political Beliefs -- Grapes Wrath e

The Grapes of Wrath and Steinbecks Political Beliefs Steinbecks affinity to the transcendentalists Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman was pointed out soon after The Grapes of Wrath appeared by Frederick I. Carpenter, and as the thirties fade into history, Jim Casy with his idea of the holiness of all men and the unreality of ugliness seems less a product of his own narrowly doctrinaire eon than a latter-day wanderer from the green village of Concord to the change plains of the West. Although Steinbeck argues for collective action to achieve specific goals, just now the most unobservant critics continue to argue that he is a collectivist in every philosophy or politics. Throughout his work he decries the mindless indoctrination of the totalitarians and maintains that only through reflection upon his bitter experience can learn the encourage of acting in concert with others for the relief of emergency conditions -- like the floodlight at the end of The Grapes of Wrath -- so that the individual may later be free to realize his own potentialities. Nothing better illustrates Steinbecks conception of social organization than the pictures in Chapter Seventeen of The Grapes of Wrath of the world that is created from each one night a people come together, and disappears the next morning when they separate. In reference to the government camps in The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck never suggests that these camps should offer more than unorthodox relief during emergencies he never suggests that the government should provide work for the people. We essential recall, too, the camp managers comment that the people in the camp had taken his job away from him by assuming responsibilities for self-government. Steinbecks approval ... ... the question How can every form of government avoid playing a continual situation in the shaping of peoples lives, whether directly or indirectly? Simply to see that Steinbeck was not a socialist, a rather easy task these geez erhood thanks to the work of Steinbeck scholars in the 60s and 70s, does not mean that he was a conservative bastion of American individualism and an opponent of big government. such a portrayal of Steinbeck is as inaccurate as the socialist portrait French and Lisca exposed. Works Consulted French, Warren. A Companion to The Grapes of Wrath. New York The Viking Press, 1963. Hawgood, John A. Americas occidental Frontiers. New York Alfred P. Knopf, 1967. Jones, Evan. The Plains States. New York Time Life Books, 1968. Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York The Sun control Press, 1939.