Steinbeck
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Prior to writing the book, Steinbeck took a “four week journey from Bakersfield to Needles in which he lived and worked with Depression migrants.”(Reuben, Paul P)
During World War I, wheat prices were high so most farmers plowed the grassland and planted dry land wheat as “bushel of wheat sold for $1 in 1929.”(The Farmers Plight)
Because of over production, wheat dropped to “$.30 cents in 1932” and farmers were not prepared for the phenomenon of the Dust Bowl. (The Farmers Plight)
Steinbecks novel begins by detailing the dust bowl that hit Oklahoma, “Houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like pollen on the chairs and tables, on the dishes.”(Steinbeck pg. 3)
Drought and soil erosion brought on by over farming turned the agricultural land of the Great Plains into a giant dust bowl during the 1930s.
The once rich grassland turned into a giant dust bowl during the 1930s “due to drought and soil erosion brought on by over farming” (Divine, APP).
Herman Goertzen, a Midwestern farmer experienced one of the most devastating storms first hand, “It was like a black wall that went over that area, south of us, there. It went through and it was just like shutting a barn door.”(Goetzen)
He states, “The iron guard bit into the house corner, crumbled the wall and wrenched the little house from its foundations so that it fell sideways, crushed like a bug.”(Chapter 5, pp. 31 to 32 )
“We all of us climbed into an old Chevy that my dad had. And then we were in California, and migratory workers”(Rap Chapter 24 216)
Steinbeck details the account, “They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless – restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do – to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut – anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land.”(Steinbeck Chapter 19, pg 233)
“the mother road, the road of flight.”(Steinbeck Chapter 23, pg 118)
Because they arrived impoverished and because wages were low, many lived in filth and squalor in tents and shanty towns along the irrigation ditches. Consequently, they were despised as “Okies,” a term of disdain, even hate, pinned on economically degraded farm laborers no matter what state they were from.
Migrants sold all belongings to raise funds to make the trip to California so upon arrival they needed to find work quick. “Consequently, they were despised as “Okies,”