The Grapes Of Wrath By John Steinbeck - 1292 Words

John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of Tom Joad, a man who leaves his home state of Oklahoma and journeys with his family to California for work during the Great Depression (Steinbeck). However, although fictional, the story hit too close to home for many Americans at the time. Some argued that the book was propaganda and exaggerated the conditions of the working class, and copies were burned in protest (â€Å"Banned Book Awareness†). In reality, Steinbeck s description of the conditions workers deal with was an understatement, and he speaks out against banks that evict families with debt (â€Å"Banned Book Awareness†). Steinbeck’s novel was a call to action addressed to the government, demanding that they do something to†¦show more content†¦In the fall, stock prices had reached unrealistic levels that couldn’t be matched by corporate earnings (â€Å"Great Depression†). By October, investors lost confidence in the market and rushed to sell their stocks due to declining prices (â€Å"Great Depression†). On October 24, prices declined by 33% causing the Great Crash of 1929 (â€Å"Great Depression†). The stock market crash was only the beginning for America. â€Å"Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and rising levels of unemployment as failing companies laid off workers† (â€Å"The Great Depression†). By 1931, over 6 million Americans were left unemployed (â€Å"The Great Depression†). Thousands of banks were shut down by 1933 due to many investors demanding cash deposits and forcing banks to liquidate loans (â€Å"The Great Depression†). â€Å"Banks, which typically hold only a fraction of deposits as cash reserves, must liquidate loans in order to raise the required cash. This process of hasty liquidation can cause even a previously solvent bank to fail† (â€Å"Great Depression†). Even with millions of Americans left bankrupt, things managed to go from bad to worse. â€Å"Farmers (who had been struggling with their own economic depression for much of the 1920s due to drought and falling food prices) couldn’t afford to harvest their crops, and were forced to leave them rotting in the fields