Grapes of Wrath Essay: Steinbecks Communist Manifesto -- Grapes Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath as a Communist manifesto Steinbecks political views are quite evident within The Grapes of Wrath. The subject of untold controversy, The Grapes of Wrath serves as a social protest and commentary. Steinbecks views as uttered through the novel tie directly into the bolshie ideals on communism. perchance the first thing Steinbeck does in The Grapes of Wrath is establish the status quo. He sets up the farmers and the banks as the two main opposing crams. Lord and serf... in a word, oppressor and oppressed (Marx, 1) Immediately Steinbeck sets up the very same speckle Marx establishes in The Communist Manifesto complete with lower-class (farmers) and bourgeois (bankers) classes. The Joads and the another(prenominal) farmers clearly represent Marxs proletariat. The entire struggle they face is that of finding playact or dying on the most basic of levels. Still, they f all in all dupe to the conditions of the Great Depression, resulting in their continued inab ility to procure such a job. The migrants appear strongly as the proletariat, the modern work class... who live wholly so long as they find work .. who must shop themselves piecemeal ... and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition to all the fluctuations of the market (Marx, 4). Steinbeck and Marx find an obvious agreement over the situation and categorisation of the Okies, the proletarian workers. One must also consider the role of the capitalistic bankers and upper-class owners in the novel. The banks serve several purposes. First in the novel, they force the rural farmers off of their lands. Being the natural proletariat, they must take to the highroad in order to find a job. The upper class, as well, distribut... ...hing for a reform of the current system. Bear in mind however, that there is no way to reform a system and let it be bleed by a monster. Steinbecks complaints about capitalism stem from its very foot and allow for no reform short of revolution. The old ways run through died, violence is building, and as Marx would agree, revolution is imminent. The bourgeoisie and proletariat exist but as Marx states, and all the conditions are shaping up for a proletarian uprising. The revolution draws nigh as Steinbecks characters learn the principles and values on which Marx bases communism. The Marxist revolution in The Grapes of Wrath is at hand, especially as working men unite. Works Cited Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York Oxford University Press, 1992. Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York Penguin Books, 1998.