Grapes of Wrath- Question 5

The questions I will be answering are "How does this novel reflect the history, behavior and social issues of the time period and setting? What is this book's symbolic and thematic significance?" from the book Grapes of Wrath. The novel reflects the history perfectly. At this point in history money was very tight. Banks were trying to get money from people who had none to give which caused many to lose their homes. This time was really hard on people and the non-existing money in their wallet. Also at this is time many people were having trouble with farming because tractors became so popular. Tractors could cover more land so many people lost their land to the banks and the people with tractors got them. This caused many people to have to migrate somewhere else for new jobs and homes. This is exactly what the Joad family had to do. They had to migrate which caused them to only have one another. They had to stick together to survive, because they were all they had in this hard time. This quote "Like a bunch a cows, when the lobos are ranging, stick all together. I ain't scared while we're all here, all that's alive, but I ain't gonna see us bust up" (Steinbeck 169 & 170) signifies that their survival at the time depended on each other. This was how it really was in this time period, many families had no home, no job, and money but they had their family. The significance of the book was just the raw reality of what was going on at the time. Many of the government and higher society people may not have liked the book because they wanted to pretend it wasn't happening. The truth was that people were losing their homes, jobs, and lives so other people could be richer. This book symbolizes the hard times for the less fortunate and what was really happening at this time in history.