Blog 15

The question "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?" is an extremely easy question to answer for the novel The Grapes of Wrath. The novel is obviously describing the times during the Great Depression. The great depression is by definition from Mirriam Webster's dictionary, the economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries, roughly beginning with the stock-market crash in October, 1929, and continuing through most of the 1930s. The novel Grapes of Wrath is about a family trying to survive during these times during the Great Depression and is a story about the lower classes of the United States of America.


When researching The Great Depression I found out some very interesing facts. The Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted ten years, all the way til 1939(University of Illinois). The Great Depression also was not only in the United States, it was also in other areas that were industrialized throughout the world. However, it was worse in America. The Great Depression causes many many people to move westward(University of Illinois). In the novel The Grapes of Wrath all of the families do move westward because of the drought which is exactly what happened in real life. The book represented what happened exactly. His novel reflected what certain families had to go through by showing different scenarios. It was a historical fiction novel that allows readers that were not alive in the era to see what people had to go through.


The symbolical significance in Grapes of Wrath is the allowance of readers to see all of the hardship and the fight people had in them back during the time period during the Great Depression. How a stock market crashing and the weather can easily change everybodies life drasticly. Most people reading the novel have no idea what all of the people had to go through. Some of the readers could actually have grandparents still alive that had to go through some of these hardships when they were our age. It just makes me very thankful that i have food on the table, a family that loves me, and a great house to live in.

"About the Great Depression." Welcome to English « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois. Web. 06 Aug. 2011.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.