THE GRAPES OF WRATH Then & Now

By BARCODE 2x

This book is no longer an old folktale. This book is back in its prime. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck chronicled the harrowing journey that many Americans took to the West Coast in search of work during the Depression of the 1930s. But what would the Joad family have encountered if they took the journey now?

If a Southern family was forced off its land by government seizure or foreclosure, they may have fewer options now more than ever. Acquiring a large and more reliable vehicle may be easier now than it was then, though it would take at least two large SUVs to transport them across country now. A family of 12, plus luggage and food, is significant. And the days of laying the elderly members of the family down in the back of a flatbed are over! Ralph Nader was born in 1934, so he had yet to make his stamp on the world of auto safety.

The family would have pulled their caravan up to a gas station and paid roughly $80 to fill each tank every 200-400 miles or so. And in a 3000-mile journey, that can really add up.

The journey would have taken a fraction of the time. A cross-country trip from Oklahoma to California is a matter of days, not weeks or months, as in the case of the Joads. They may not have lost as many members of the family along the way. Both Granma and Grampa, if they had survived, would have been much more difficult to bury along the way. In the 1930s, the barren stretches of road would have been huge and vast, and under cover of darkness, it would have been easier and cleaner to handle the citizen's burial.

The citizens' burial is one of the many laws that the Joads break along the way. And the modern-day Joads would have had to do the same thing, if they did not have the resources to bury their dead lawfully. Bear in mind, the Joads are also transporting a paroled murderer. Tom Joad flees justice to go with his family, breaking parole and crossing state lines. So a registered funeral would draw too much attention to him and coul get him arrested. Other legal infractions, including punching a cop, conspiracy to start a riot, stealing and vagrancy, would still be unavoidable today. Tom Joad's legal wrangles would not be any easier in this century than in the last one. Outlaw justice is a means of survival. In a closed system like a family, it is sometimes agreed upon that certain laws and regulations must be bent to keep everyone together and alive.

Later, when Tom Joad reunites with his friend Jim Casy and joins the struggle to form a worker's union, he may not have had to struggle so hard nowadays. The idea of unions carries more weight now, and a company is less able to suppress their workers through threat of violence. Though nowadays, workers are happy enough to just have the work, and are willing to sacrifice the extra benefits that unions can provide. Unions may be a luxury for today's workforce.

And the work conditions themselves are different now, but in a strained economy, what will the worker do to make a dollar? As we see in The Wrestler, lower-income workers have few options once the economy takes a dive. The Joads pick peaches for a short while, putting the entire family to work (which would never fly nowadays; the young kids would have to go to school). The farms need 9 men to work year-round, and then once a year, they need thousands to harvest.

When the law finally catches up with Tom Joad, he is forced to go underground and live in the woods like an animal. His refugee life and his final end are still unknown. Tom Joad becomes a ghost before his death, a spirit, a watchful eye on the justice of the everyday worker.

The Joads experience something similar to what illegal undocumented workers go through in today's job market. They depend upon the kindness of their communities, and take work from sympathetic friends and sometimes crooked employers. They are often disposable in a tough market, and when their services are no longer needed, they are dropped immediately until the season returns. The face of the workforce is changing. Jobs that may have been outsourced before to foreign hands may now be in demand from U.S. citizens. The migrant worker is left with few or no options.

The Joad family never ceases to help those around them. When Rose of Sharon loses her baby in the end of the story, Ma still encourages her to give all she can. The starving man in the barn at the book's conclusion is in a worse state than the Joads ever were. Through all of the unimaginable hell they experience, there is still someone needier than they. The plight of the homeless today is not unlike this final scenario. Homeless people and families are often left needing to ask for shelter and temporary help from some of the poorest people in this nation. Extended families form out of need, and when resources are scant, the poor are still asked to stretch their rations out to help the destitute.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH is still the novel of our times. History will determine whether or not we have re-entered another Great Depression. History will give a name to our current state. Our elected officials call it a recession, and perhaps they are all just words. The fact remains that there are segments of the population that are being discarded day by day. As the layoffs continue, and the foundations of the economy continue to crumble, what tactics will ordinary Americans have to resort to to survive? What laws will have to be bent or broken to get through to the next paycheck?

THE GRAPES OF WRATH, adapted for the stage by Frank Galati, runs February 6 & 7 at the Blackbird Theatre in Ann Arbor. This fully staged reading begins each night at 8pm. For tickets call 734 332 3848 or go online to www.blackbirdtheatre.org. The Blackbird Theatre is located at 1600 Pauline Blvd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103.