John Steinbeck (1902-1968) is considered the foremost novelist of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and his own life contains insights into the development of his sympathy for the dispossessed, the downtrodden and the migrant workers as evidenced in two of his early novels, the 1936 In Dubious Battle, and the 1939 The Grapes of Wrath. These novels reflect his concern with the struggles of common laborers, of which he had firsthand knowledge through his observations and work as a laborer, a seaman, surveyor and migratory worker among other jobs. He believed that one of the main functions of a writer was to ôserve as the watch-dog of societyàto satirize its silliness, to attack its injustices, to stigmatize its faultsö (McMichael 1939).
Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California to a middle-class family, and grew up in a valley that was fertile, but also one in which the agricultural and factory workers were exploited. ôThe plight of these workers made a deep impression on himö (Kneer 79A). ôFrom his boyhood he was self-supporting; he worked as a laborer àand migratory fruit pickerö (McMichael 1939). These experiences led to SteinbeckÆs interest in the human condition. In Dubious Battle focuses on the class struggle of the late 1920s and 1930s as it depicts ôthe lives of migrant workers and their resistance to exploitation by the entrenched forces of societyö (McMichael 1939). SteinbeckÆs most famous novel, for which he received the 1940 Pulitzer Prize, The Grapes of Wrath, depicts the misery and migration of a poor family of ôOakiesö forced to leave their home during the devastating Dust Bowl that ravaged the land. ôIn the morning the dust hung like fogàAll day the sun sifted down from the skyàan even blanket covered the earthö (Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath 6). The story of the Joad family becomes the story of all migrants who Steinbeck views as part of a greater social movement, as ôlonely and perplexedö in ...