SARROCA, Charisse S.

3/III 2 BSE English

Naturalism in John Steinbecks

The Grapes of Wrath
The novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck uses the Joad familys experiences and
struggles to show the adversities faced by many small farmers from some southern states
during the Dust Bowl Depression and reveal the naturalist perspective showing how
defenseless humans can be against natural and social forces despite all of their strength and
technological advances and how they will to escape these determining forces.
Naturalism considers humans to be determined by heredity and environment. It is a way
of imagining the world and the relation of the self to the world (Howard, 1985) wherein an
individual is in an external struggle with both the environment and his self in relation to his
natural and social surroundings. The individual is at the mercy of social and economic
forces; he is subject to the social and economic forces in the family, the class, and the milieu
into which that person is born (Abrams, 1988). In naturalism, an individual is determined by
the environmental, economic, and social forces around him.
Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath shows us the numerous ways in which the small
farmers are struggling to escape their dismal homeland in search of a better life in California
during the Great Depression through the story of the Joad family and reveals the measures
they take in order to survive.
The novel begins with a lengthy description of the dismal state of the land and the people
as the dust progressively takes over and devastates their lives. It settled on the corn, piled up
on the tops of the fence posts, piled up on the wires; it settled on roofs, blanketed the weeds
and trees. (p. 4). The dust was a primary factor for the peoples decision to migrate to
California and it is also a constant determining factor for their hardships throughout their

journey. It took over their land and lives so much and rendered them unable to do anything
that it forced many families into moving to California.
. . . the dirt crust broke and the dust formed. Every moving thing lifted the
dust into the air: a walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a
wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops, and an automobile boiled a
cloud behind it. The dust was long in settling back again. (p. 3)
Being the strongest representations of despair, the dust and dryness of the land became
the continual reminders of the naturalistic forces which dictate the predicament of the
Oklahoman migrants, including the Joads. These naturalistic forces are what drove the Joads,
along with other Oklahoman families to migrate to California in hope of a better life.
Significantly, this event could be likened to when an animal is removed from its natural
habitat and is exposed to unfamiliar conditions. The extent of its adaptability is thus revealed
and will determine whether or not it will survive in the new environment. In the case of the
Joad family, their adaptability is revealed as they face difficulty after difficulty throughout
their journey to and even after their arrival in California.
The dust signifies the trials that the Joad family had to confront as they migrate to the
promised land of California. Using the dust as the symbol for the Joad familys problems is
noteworthy since the dust, as the product of the earth, implies that it is the earth and the
environment which determine Joads sufferings.
Throughout the novel, the Joads are portrayed to be powerless against the forces and
situations surrounding them. They are helpless in face of extreme drought and they are also
helpless against the negative treatment that they receive in California. Succinctly, this shows
that, essentially, human beings have no control over naturalistic elements and are therefore at
the mercy of these elements.
Another factor which the Joads had no control over and were powerless against were the
economic social forces. It is also part of the reason why they had to move out from
Oklahoma. Due to the Great Depression, many farmers had taken out loans from banks.
These debts played a huge role in the decline of those farmer families. The banks wanted
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their money back; the farmers, however, were unable to pay them back as it was the height of
the extreme drought. The banks then simply took the farmers land and evicted them. Thus,
the farmers were left with no land and were then forced to move out of their homeland and
search for another life in another place, especially the west.
During their migration, the Joads experiences are similar to those of an animals as they
are forced by natural forces to struggle in immediately coping with the unfamiliar
environment that they suddenly find themselves in. Along with numerous other farmer
families from Oklahoma, the Joads become exposed to the basic elements and they must
quickly learn how to adapt and survive. This clearly shows the elemental nature of the Joad
familys struggle.
After the struggle against the extreme drought in Oklahoma, the Joads then had to learn
to live in an environment that further degrades them. Even in California, where they once
thought they would be able to start a new life, the Joads still had to struggle against a
different force: the prejudice of the locals. A gas store owner and attendant in California talk
badly about the Oklahoman migrants by describing them as having no sense and no
feeling, and the attendant even goes so far as to saying that they are not human.
"Them Okies? They're all hard-lookin'."
"Jesus, I'd hate to start out in a jalopy like that."
"Well, you and me got sense. 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." (p. 150)
In line with the naturalistic approach, the Joads and other Oklahoman families
highlighted that like a group of animals sticking together is essential for survival. They
gathered together for strength, number, and protection in order to help them endure the
natural elements in their journey.

In the daylight they scuttled like bugs to the westward; and as the dark
caught them, they clustered like bugs near to shelter and to water. And
because they were lonely and perplexed, because they had all come from a
place of sadness and worry and defeat, and because they were all going to a
new mysterious place, they huddled together; they talked together; they shared
their lives, their food, and the things they hoped for in the new country. (p.
130)
The omniscient narrator of the novel also makes it clear that it was imperative that the
Oklahomans remain whole in order to survive the elements which determine their lives. They
had to become one family as they confront their new environment, and although
misfortune and hardships strike every single one of them, they must not let those create a rift
between them as a group.
Finally, the turtle at the very beginning of the story is a strong symbolism of the Joads
and also served as a foreshadowing for the events that would come in the life of the Joads
throughout the rest of the book. The turtle is an analogy to the Joads and, ultimately, to
man as it struggles to crawl westward.
The Joads, much like the turtle, are unprotected against the basic elements in their
surroundings and are coerced into finding ways to cope with these elements in order to
survive.
The sun lay on the grass and warmed it, and in the shade under the grass
the insects moved, ants and ant lions to set traps for them, grasshoppers to
jump into the air and flick their yellow wings for a second, sow bugs like little
armadillos, plodding restlessly on many tender feet. And over the grass at the
roadside a land turtle crawled, turning aside for nothing, dragging his highdomed shell over the grass: His hard legs and yellow-nailed feet threshed
slowly through the grass, not really walking, but boosting and dragging his
shell along. (p. 11)

The turtle crawled, turning aside for nothing and toiled on in its journey towards the
west at the same time that the Joads migrate westward to California. Moreover, just as how
the Joads were having a hard time transporting their belongings in a vehicle that was less
than sufficient, the turtle was also portrayed to be dragging its belongings its highdomed shell over the grass. The Joads and the turtle are also alike as they grow more
frantic as their obstacles increase both in number and in difficulty.
As the embankment grew steeper and steeper, the more frantic were the
efforts of the land turtle. Pushing hind legs strained and slipped, boosting the
shell along, and the horny head protruded as far as the neck could stretch.
Little by little the shell slid up the embankment until at last a parapet cut
straight across its line of march, the shoulder of the road, a concrete wall four
inches high. (p. 11)
A sedan driven by a forty-year-old woman approached. She saw the turtle
and swung to the right, off the highway, the wheels screamed and a cloud of
dust boiled up. Two wheels lifted for a moment and then settled. The car
skidded back onto the road, and went on, but more slowly. The turtle had
jerked into its shell, but now it hurried on, for the highway was burning hot.
(p. 11)
Akin to the Joads, the turtl is determined to reach its destination: a more fruitful land.
Furthermore, like many Oklahomans, it is also displacing itself from its homeland and is
confronting many dangers in its journey while looking forward to gaining harvest in the west
as represented by the seed that it carries from Oklahoma.
In spite of the dire circumstances that the Joads and other Oklahoman families faced, they
chose to be united in facing these problems. The migrant families became united and
therefore turned into a larger, more efficient group.
The Oklahomans are able to find refuge because of their common plight by suppressing
their individual needs in favor of becoming one solid unit instead of being just a mere group
of individuals. With the ideology that they must truly become one, each member of the
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family finally grew into his own proper place and duties in order for the family to function
more capably.
And as the cars moved westward, each member of the family grew into his
proper place, grew into his duties; so that each member, old and young, had
his place in the car; so that in the weary, hot evenings, when the cars pulled
into the camping places, each member had his duty and went to it without
instruction: children to gather wood, to carry water; men to pitch the tents
and bring down the beds; women to cook the supper and to watch while the
family fed. (p. 132)
Eventually, the migrant families integrated with one another, becoming and even larger
group:
The families, which had been units of which the boundaries were a house
at night, a farm by day, changed their boundaries. In the long hot light, they
were silent in the cars moving slowly westward; but at night they integrated
with any group they found. (p. 132)
The Joad family was able to confront the determining naturalistic forces through human
spirit. Their ability to be a part of a group, which resulted to their sincere love and concern
for one another, arose as an important and compelling response to all the naturalistic forces
that the Joad family was dealing with.

REFERENCES:
Abrams, M.H. (1988). A glossary of literary terms. Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Howard, J. (1985) Form and history in American literary naturalism. Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press.