The American society During the Great Depression in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

Abstract

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is an American classic novel known for its extraordinary descriptive quality. It gained this title due to its strong word painting techniques and its socio-economic implications. It is about the American lowclass fugitive families who were oppressed by both the richer capitalists and the government. This New Historicist-based research aims to shed light on the social status of the American community during the Great Depression. Besides, it shows to what extent John Steinbeck could make use of his masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath as a tool to provide valuable historical insight through demonstrating the social themes and the American philosophies that were seminal during the Great depression.