The grapes of wrath- setting

The setting of the book 'The Grapes of Wrath' plays a very important role in understanding the lives of the characters of the book. The book takes place in the late nineteen thirties in the states of Oklahoma and California. Understanding the time that these characters lived through helps you to have a better understanding of the struggles they had and the challenges that they over came. The late nineteen thirties was a time of a lot of suffering and a lot of pain and a lot of trouble. People were kicked out of their houses by banks, farmers were going bankrupt because their crops had problems and many people were out of a job. Many families had to ditch their lives and every thing that they loved in order to create a stable life for them selves. A lot of farmers at this time had huge troubles trying to get their crops to grow. The Dust Bowl made it very difficult for farmers to make money. Understanding what the dust bowl was is a very important part in understanding the setting and what was happening during this book. The dust bowl was a series of dust storms that took place during a terrible drought in the nineteen thirties. Many farmers crops were covered in dust which made it impossible for the crops to survive making it impossible for the farmers to make money from their own crops. They could no longer grow their crops, so they needed to find a new job. They heard about a lot of jobs that had become open in California, so they left their homes and traveled the long dangerous journey from their homes to California with their families. This was a brave move for the farmers and their families, but it was the only choice that they had for survival. This story took place during a time that was very difficult for a lot of Americans, so fully understanding the events that took place during this time is a very important part of understanding this story.



Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.