Unfair and Wrong
By: Jessica Pizzo
Period: 7 God in Literature
26 November 2008
It’s time to turn the page for all those Americans who want nothing more than to have a job that can pay the bills and raise a family…let’s finally allow our unions to do what they do best and lift up the middle-class in this country once more…we believe that if the majority of workers in a company want a union, they should get a union. We can do this.
President Elected Barack Obama, he supports the average middle-class family. The average man in America, with an average salary should be able to afford a meal every night, be able to pay the bills every month, and be able to keep a roof over their head. However, during the late 1920s and through the 1930s this was not the case. In 1929, the Stock Market crashed which began the longest and most severe economic depression in the United States history- the Great Depression. During this time, hundreds of banks closed, and unemployment skyrocketed and reached over 25%. All areas of America needed assistance. Making matters worse, in 1935 Dust Bowl conditions worsened. “Families abandoned their homes and traveled in search of work; most headed for the fields of California.”(Yancy 23) At this moment in time, families struggled for money, food, shelter, and jobs- the sufficient life goods that benefit the average American. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath effectively captures the essence of these families along their journey to California.
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 off the coast of Monterey in Salinas. He had a particularly normal childhood living in a middle-class family- his silent father ran his own flour mill, and his mother stayed at home with the children. Steinbeck on the other hand was a strange, self-conscious child. After receiving his first book, The Red Pony, Steinbeck started to learn the difference between good and bad and also formed his mind about oppression. After graduating...