...The Okies/Migrants The Dust Bowl was a time of hard work, sacrifice, and most of all: sadness. The Dust Bowl occurred in the 1930's and was a time of great depression when droughts had struck the Great Plains in America. These droughts dramatically effected farmers in Oklahoma and Texas, and other neighboring areas, and eventually lead to farmers being forced off of their land in search of work in the West (“History”). These farmers who migrated to the West were formally known as “Okies”, a nickname given to them by Californians. Therefore, the Okies played a significant role during the dust bowl due to the incredible amounts of people who migrated to places, such as California, the hardships they experienced during the Dust Bowl era, and the long journey it took to find work in the West. Certainly, Okies experienced the most heartache and difficulties during the period of the severe droughts that struck America. Something that really catches the eye...
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...Page-4 vki pkykd] /keZfiz; ,oa LoHkko ls datwl gksrs gSaA vkidks u'kk djus dh vknr gksrh gSA vki vius O;fDrRo ls nwljksa dks viuh vksj vkdf"kZr djus esa l{ke gksrs gSaA vki lq[k vkSj nq%[k nksuksa ifjfLFkfr;ksa esa izlUu jgus okys ,oa u ?kcjkus okys gksrs gSaA vki jktuhfr ,oa vU; O;olk;ksa ls /ku dekus okys gksrs gSaA vki vius lxs lacaf/k;ksa ls I;kj djus okys] O;kikj esa dq'ky ,oa Ik;VZu izseh gksrs gSaA vki IykfLVd m|ksx] diM+k m|ksx] ckj] jsLVksjsaV] Qsalh LVksj] vkWVkseksckby m|ksx] ;krk;kr] isafVx] QksVksxzkQh] C;wVhikyZj] ra=&ea= ,oa T;ksfr"k] csdjh] LVwfM;ks] nw/k Ms;jh] jlksb;k] vdkmaV~l] cSafdax] laxhr dyk] ukV~;dyk] fQYe m|ksx] tt] odhy] budeVSDl&lsYlVSDl vf/kdkjh ,oa lykgdkj vkfn ls lacaf/kr gks ldrs gSaA vki 'kfDr'kkyh] lR; cksyus okys] 'kqHk vkpj.k ls ;qDr gksrs gSaA vki ljdkjh ukSdjh ls ;qDr] fdlh Hkh dk;Z dks djus esa vius eu dh djus okys ,oa okgu laiUu gksrs gSaA vkidh cqf) vkSj Hkkouk,a dkQh rhoz gksrh gSA vkidh Lej.k 'kfDr ,oa vkUrfjd le> cgqr vPNh gksrh gSA vki fo}ku] /kkfeZd LoHkko ;qDr] vPNk cksyus okys ,oa vkfFkZd :i ls laiUu gksrs gSaA vki /keZ ds uke ij nwljksa dks /kks[kk nsus okys Hkh gks ldrs gSaA vki ,dkar ;k xqIr LFkku esa jguk ilan djrs gSaA vki vPNs fe=ksa ls ;qDr] nkuh] vusdksa m|ksx ;k izca/k }kjk /ku ykHk djus okys gksrs gSaA vki viuh bPNk ls vius ls cM+s in ij vklhu yksxksa dks [kq'k j[kus esa...
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...A provocative idea is one, which illuminates a respondent about moral or contentious issues and challenges their view of the world. Within the literary world, composers explore provocative and timeless ideas whilst instilling their own personal experiences into their novel to produce a great classic. John Steinbeck epitomises these ideas in his realist novel The Grapes of Wrath by exploring the challenging and stark issues of; the powerlessness and perseverance of Okies, and the power of communities. Steinbeck successfully connects with respondents on a sensory and emotional level, through the utilization of various language techniques to illuminate respondents of the numerous socio-economic hardships the Okies were subjugated to in the late 1930s. Powerlessness comes about when an external force renders one into a state of mind where they feel that have limited control over their wellbeing, personal lives and the culture wherein they live. Steinbeck highlights the Joads powerlessness in “We tried to camp together, an` they drove us, like pigs. Scattered us. Beat the hell outta fellas. Druv us like pigs”. Through the use of simile of “pigs”, it highlights the inhumane mistreatment by the Banks, which have driven them out of their homes. This is further highlighted in the rhetorical question “The kids are hungry all the time. What do you want us to do?” Steinbeck conveys the difficult predicament the tenant farmers are put in by the landowners, who have subordinated the...
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...It was something they could not ignore since there was a presence of discrimination from everyone around them (okiedisccrimination.weebly.com). The Okies were in the newspapers, the radio, and were the talk around town when they arrived (articles.latimes.com). Part of this was due to Ben Reddick, a journalist in the 1930s who gave the Oklahoman migrants the term Okie (articles.latimes.com). He saw the license plates of the many Oklahomans and noted how he saw OK, the abbreviation for the state of Oklahoma (articles.latimes.com). Eventually he nicknamed the migrants Okies, and it was used all over California to refer to the Oklahomans (articles.latimes.com). Soon though, the word would be used in an egregious way (okiediscrimination.weebly.com). Since the Okies seemed to be quite popular in California for all the bad things that happened to them, their popularity skyrocketed nationally when John Steinbeck wrote and published one of his greatest books, The Grapes of Wrath (okiediscrimination.weebly.com). Many other book and movies were made about the Dust Bowl and Okie Migration, but The Grapes of Wrath was the most known book at the time and even now it still...
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...does not directly contribute to the suffering of the poor, he indirectly increases the pain they feel. He is “no contact” and “moody” (ch.15; 209), which presents his disinterested personality and annoyance with reality. Al has the capability of reaching out to others, but “he never speaks” (ch.15; 209). This portrays him as the bystander; he is well aware of the horrible challenges people are facing but would rather not take any part in fixing them. When the Okie begs Mae to sell him cheap loaf of bread and she is unwilling to give him one, Al angrily forces her to “give ’em the loaf” (ch.15; 218). Al’s insistence does not present an act of kindness, but it shows his desire to avoid dealing with the problem. He ultimately wants the Okies...
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...The short story “Like Mexicans” is written by Gary Soto. Soto talked about how prejudice occurred and everybody is the same. I agree with both of these messages from the story because you should never judge a book by its cover. Prejudice was shown in “Like Mexicans” when the grandmother didn’t want Soto to marry an “Okie.” Soto grandmother made it clear that “Asians are Okies”, “Italians in suits are Okies”, and the “French are Okies”. (Soto, 301) The way she acted towards other races backfired on her because Soto ended up marrying an “Okie.” Soto (301) Another point made in the story is everybody is not the same. The grandmother thought Soto would marry somebody in a higher class than he was. Soto thought he was...
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...Great Depression and Dust Bowl; therefore, the government started making laws to protect the workers. People migrated to California looking for work. Before people migrated to California they needed to pack up all of their belongings. Several of the migrants had very few belongings and ended up just taking the little money they had, and a few personal items. Migrants packed up their families and made the difficult journey to California (Fanslow). Farmers became migrant workers as a result of losing their land to the bank. When the farmers lost their land they lived in tents, under bridges, and in roadside ditch camps. Migrant workers were generally Okies (Fanslow) but several migrants were out of work farmers. The Okies were not respected (Gates, Griffin) when they arrived in California, but out of all of the Okies, the white Okies were given the greatest amount of respect (Ganzel). Approximately 1.3 million workers migrated to California (Farm Labor in the 1930's). There were multiple paths migrants took to take them to California, but the main path for migration was route 66 (Gates, Griffin). In addition to the migrants few belongings they were struggling economically. Countless people migrated to California looking for better economic opportunities, but few found immediate riches. Farmers lost their land and became migrant workers considering they spent too much on new equipment that they became financially overextended (Fanslow). This debt caused a 30% unemployment rate...
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...applying to only one individual. Jim Casy, the Christ figure, is one example of an allusion from the New Testament. However, the whole book can be seen as a Biblical allusion to the story of the Exodus and the life of Moses. Not only does the story of the fictional Joad family relate to the Exodus, but the story of the Okies and the great migration that took place during the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. This compelling story of the migrants can be divided into three parts: the oppression, the exodus, and the Promised Land. The chronicle of the Exodus begins with the Hebrews being enslaved to the Egyptians. Because of this, God sent ten plagues to Egypt. After the tenth plague, the pharaoh agreed to let the Hebrews become free and their journey across the desert is known as the Exodus. Thus the modern word exodus refers to any mass migration or departure of a large group of people. The excursion of the migrant workers can be described as a modern day exodus (compared to time-period of the Biblical story). Like the Hebrews, the Joad family and the rest of the migrants end up fleeing from their oppressors, which happens to be the banks. The period of time when the Okies use Route 66 as a way to move cross-country is the true exodus of the story, as it is a migration of a people. The migrants reaching California can be compared to the Hebrews finally reaching the Promised Land of Israel. Not only does the book relate to the movement of the Israelites, but also to the legendary man who...
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...I have chosen to do my paper on one of the most tragic times in history, the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl started in the early 1930’s and ended in the late 1930’s. The Dust Bowl had a very large impact on the U.S during this time. Also what a “great” time for this to happen because The Depression was also in effect at the time as well. I will also be talking about how the dust bowl could or could not have been prevented. I will also mention how socialistic events and economical events affect the dust bowl. Last but not least I will be talking about hoovervilles, herbert hoover dealt with the situation, and what okies are. In the mid to late 1920’s, the midwest starts to experience an extreme drought, and farmers who are already losing profits,...
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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) Steinbeck’s 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 1930’s. The once rich grassland turned into a giant dust bowl during the 1930’s “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...
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...feeling during all of their struggles. In Let The Water Hold Me Down it is based around Hank’s life but it shows the lives of the locals in Chiapas and the fight of the Zapatistas for a better government. The people fought for what they wanted and although they lost many times they didn't back down from their goal of having indigenous rights. The migrants and the Zapatistas had similar wants they wanted to be equals, they wanted to be treated like human beings not scum and trash that can be pushed around by the wealthy. After many years of fighting for what they want they were finally able to get what they want. They wanted to be able to live in peace with their own lands and no discrimination against them. The ‘Okies’ hated being called dirty, trash, scum, ‘Okies’, they didn't understand why the people hated them so much even if they were the same. The landowners and locals didn't want the migrants to take their jobs and land so they did everything they could so that, that could never happen. They did this buy lowering wages but longer work hours, they would give one price and then after a couple of days they would lower the price until people couldn't handle its anymore and left. The migrants didn't have enough food for their families so they had to split up even if they didn't want to. The people in Chiapas feared American or white men, they would get taken advantage of and left on the street with nothing. When Hank tried to help the old woman that got push over those around...
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...in a closed Mexican community with the set rules and expectations of the society that every Mexican should morally obey. Everything that he learned, observed and truly believed has changed when he became a young adult. His values about life and people has drastically taken a different path in life, when he met his future wife Carolyn, who was a Japanese decent. The author very much concentrates on his grandmother and her strong influence on trying to talk Gary into marrying only a Mexican girl. For her everyone that was not Mexican would not be a fitted wife for her grandson Gary. She sais “ No Okies hijo”, “ My son married one, and they fight everyday about I don’t know what and I don’t know what”. She is using her personal unfamiliarity and unawareness about people from different backgrounds and that made her indirectly to be a prejudice towards Okies ( Whites). Her discriminative and judgmental behavior together with other family members came from lack of knowledge and poor information about people from other cultures. The community in which Gary grew up was a patriarchal, where women was a caregiver and excellent cook and man was a head of a household and a bred maker. Watching his grandmother...
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...John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas, California, a region that became the setting for much of his fiction, including Of Mice and Men. As a teenager, he spent his summers working as a hired hand on neighboring ranches, where his experiences of rural California and its people impressed him deeply. In 1919, he enrolled at Stanford University, where he studied intermittently for the next six years before finally leaving without having earned a degree. For the next five years, he worked as a reporter and then as caretaker for a Lake Tahoe estate while he completed his first novel, an adventure story called Cup of Gold, which was published in 1929. Critical and commercial success did not come for another six years, when Tortilla Flat was published in 1935, at which point Steinbeck was finally able to support himself entirely with his writing. In his acceptance speech for the 1962 Nobel Prize in literature, Steinbeck said: . . . the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature. Steinbeck’s best-known works deal intimately with the plight of desperately poor California wanderers, who, despite the cruelty of their circumstances...
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... was difficult for farmers to give up their herds, the cattle slaughter program helped many of them avoid bankruptcy. The government cattle buying program was a God send to many farmers, as they could not afford to keep their cattle, and the government paid a better price than they could obtain in local markets” (The Dust, 3). In addition, the president approved the Emergency Relief Act, which created jobs for 8.5 million people with the conception of the Works Progress Administrator. America distributed more than 1 billion dollars in aide although it was often embezzled by city officials and never got to the people that really needed it. The number of migrant workers also increased, many known as “Okies moved in large groups from Oklahoma. “The Okies also came in family groups and were in desperate straights, living in tents or out of the back of a car or truck.” (Ganzel 2). They received lower wages due to supply and demand. Basically, there were plenty of workers, and not enough work to go around. This big migration spurred discrimination against minorities. Those in a higher social class were having to take the jobs of lower social classes in order to have a job at all. Hispanics and Asians faced worse economic conditions and heightened discrimination. Many minorities were the primary targets of termination by businesses in major cities. Minorities who were employed on farms were known as sharecroppers, or tenants who worked on a farmer’s property...
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...figgerin’ how to eat” which shows how hard it is to find a well paying job, let alone a job itself to support a person or family. Generally throughout ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ there are instances where the injustices of the Dust Bowl situation may hit home harder than any nonfiction piece could convey as is seen where it was clear everyone was against the migrants and would take any opportunity to dehumanize them. The latter is demonstrated in chapter 18 of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ where it is mentioned “Well, you and me got sense. Them goddamn Okies hot no sense and no feeling. They ain’t human...They ain’t a hell of a lot better than gorillas”...
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