The Impact of Emigration on the American Society in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

Abstract

Since emigration has been for centuries the prominent characteristic of America, and the mainstream issue of our contemporary life, the purpose of this dissertation is to shed light on the history of emigration in the United States, and to provide a particular focus on the issue of emigration in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath. To fulfil such a process, the present work is divided into two chapters. The first chapter is a reference to the history of emigration and its influence in attracting millions through the ideal of the American dream. Then we sought to analyse the principals of highly impacting movements and philosophies that emerged due to major events that reshaped the American economy, society and culture during the early decades of the twentieth century; naturalism and modernism, Social Darwinism and determinism; along with stating a short biography of the accomplished novelist John Steinbeck and his major works. The second part deals with the issue of emigration in John Steinbeck’s depression-era master piece The Grapes of Wrath in which he strove to portray the ordeals of hostility raised by the locals and authorities of California against the unfortunate migrants and their disastrous effects in exacerbating their struggles, after fleeing from the harshness of the Dust Bowl in the late 1930s and the callousness of the banks by the enclosure of their lands and homes.