What Do I Read Next?
- In Dubious Battle (1936) is John Steinbeck’s initial entry in a trilogy examining the migrant labor issues of the 1930s. The novel centers on labor organizers and a strike in California’s apple orchards. Its publication sparked controversy.
- Of Mice and Men (1937) is the second installment in Steinbeck’s trilogy about migrant workers. It tells the story of two migrants, one of whom is mentally disabled, and their unattainable dream of a better life due to an oppressive social system.
- Emile Zola’s Germinal (1885) is set in a French mining town. The protagonist, Etienne Lantier, observes how the working-class families are devastated by a society that treats people as expendable resources, a fate he is powerless to alter.
- The Octopus (1901) by Frank Norris is the first book in Norris’s “Trilogy of the Wheat.” Situated in California’s San Joaquin Valley, it explores the exploitation of local wheat farmers by railroad companies. Norris delves into the challenge of maintaining a Judeo-Christian ethic in an indifferent world.
- In the nonfiction work Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California (1939), Carey McWilliams investigates the migrant labor issue. This study was released in the same year as Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
- Justin Kaplan’s Lincoln Steffens: A Biography (1974) profiles one of the most notable muckrakers in American journalism. Steffens exposed corruption in various city governments through a series of articles in 1902-1903. As an influential social critic and reform advocate, Steffens befriended John Steinbeck in the 1930s while living in Carmel, California. He introduced Steinbeck to migrant labor issues and union organizers, leading to Steinbeck’s assignment to cover the migrants for the San Francisco Chronicle. Kaplan’s biography won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
- James N. Gregory’s American Exodus: The Dust Bowl and Okie Culture in California (1989) chronicles the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the subsequent migration to California, as depicted in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.