The Grapes of Wrath

Photos are from the May 1999 performance at
The Theatre School at DePaul University

Last night, some friends of ours and Gaby and I went to see City Rep's production of  The Grapes of Wrath at the Burg Theater at OCU.  This story, whether we're talking about the book or the movie, has always had an emotional impact on me (I frequently tell people that Chapter 15 is my favorite short story,)  But this was the first time to see the play.  I have to say, the play is better than the movie.
    There are so many things that go through my mind when I think of this story. This morning I was telling Gaby about wanting to write this blog post, and expressing my worry that I wouldn't be able to completely convey the thoughts and feelings it stirs within me.  It happens a lot that I think of writing something, and by the time I get to it, much of the inspiration has faded, and the words along with it.  But I'm going to give it a shot, realizing that I may have to come back to revise it later.
    My uncle, my Dad's brother, who happens to be a Baptist preacher, came to town to visit just after the 2012 elections, and my Dad and he were complaining about the results of that election, my uncle saying that Obama had duped all the blacks and all the Mexicans ("And the gays," my aunt chimed in,) and that's why he'd won, with all of his deceptive campaigning.
    Now, I'm not out to anyone on my Dad's side of the family, just out of respect to my Dad, and I didn't care to participate in the conversation, but the things that were said have all been stuck in my memory, and I've pondered them frequently.  To begin with, I voted for Obama in both elections, but I don't remember a single thing that was said in his campaign that made me want to vote for him either time.  Instead, all of my attention was on his opponent. In 2008, I voted for him because he wasn't McCain; in 2012, it was because he wasn't a Republican.  In 2008, my understanding of economics had changed: by 2012, it was my understanding of politics.  He's actually the first Democrat I've ever voted for in a major election.
    Later that night, we went out to dinner, and for some reason, the movie The Grapes of Wrath came up, and I mentioned that I had just gotten the DVD.  My uncle wanted to watch it, so I went back to my house and got it.  We watched it on the big screen TV at my parents' house.  I've wondered sometimes how my Dad and his brother see the social, economic and political premise of the story.  It's certainly opposed to their politico-economic views in ways that are obvious to me.

Watching the play last night, certain scenes brought a lot of this back to me.  I can see and hear some of my friends playing certain roles, saying certain lines very convincingly because they've said it all before on Facebook.  Every time someone was called a "red" or an "agitator" because they banded together to demand more than starvation wages, I saw Facebook posts critical of unions and raising the minimum wage.  Michelle Bachman has said that if the minimum wage was eliminated altogether, “we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.”  She seems to have no understanding that more workers would simply end up with lower wages and less purchasing power, causing the economy to slow and generate fewer jobs. Steinbeck addresses this notion in several chapters, but one in particular tells about people being hired to pick peaches and being paid two and a half cents per three gallon bucket -- "You know what two an' a half is---that's one ton of peaches picked an' carried for a dollar... You can't get your food for that.  Can't eat for that."  As economist Robert Reich points out, "It is no great feat for an economy to create a large number of jobs paying very little. Slavery, after all, was a full-employment system."
    The most heart wrenching scene, though, in the play, the movie, and the book takes place in a camp in New Mexico.  A "ragged man" is describing in graphic detail watching his wife and children starve to death because he couldn't find work.  "I can't tell ya about them little fellas layin' in the tent with their bellies puffed out an' jus' skin on their bones, an' shiverin' an' whinin' like pups, an' me runnin' aroun' tryin' to get work---not for money, not for wages!  Jesus Christ, jus' for a cup a flour an' a spoon a lard.  An' then the coroner come."  The man running the camp described him as a "troublemaker" and a "labor faker," saying, "Man wants to work, O.K.  If he don't--the hell with him.  We ain't gonna let him stir up no trouble."  SOH John Boehner said recently, "I think this idea that’s been born out the last – maybe out of the economy last couple of years that, 'you know, I really don’t have to work. I don’t really want to do this, I think I’d just rather sit around.' This is a very sick idea for our country."  This is the attitude toward the poor and unemployed that's been propagated in recent times, and even voiced by my Dad.  It seems that a lot of people think that the solution to the ragged man's problem was that he just needed to get up off his lazy ass and find a job, and if he didn't, to hell with him.  In an economy where there are more people looking for work than there are jobs, that makes no sense, but a lot of  people seem to believe that if we take away their unemployment insurance and force them to look for work, the jobs will magically appear. 
    People will do what they need to do to survive, of course, but not everyone will understand what drives them to do what they do.  After the Joad family left a sevice station in Needles, and set out across the Mojave Desert, one of the service station attendants said of them, "Them goddamn Okies got no sense and no feeling.  They ain't human.  A human being wouldn't live like they do.  A human being couldn't stand it to be so dirty and miserable.  They ain't a hell of a lot better than gorillas... You know, they don't have much trouble.  They're so goddamn dumb they don't know it's dangerous.  And, Christ Almighty, they don't know any better than what they got.  Why worry?"  There's no understanding  here that sometimes there are circumstances beyond the control of the individual; there are larger forces at work.  But like Shakespeare wrote, "Everyone can master a grief but he that has it."
    Anyway, these are just some of the things I see when Steinbeck speaks to me.  I don't really understand why my Dad and his brother don't see the same things, but I guess they just watch the movie for the nostalgia.