Dustbowl

2 Pages 555 Words

1)Archibald MacLeish, Land of the Free
2) John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
3)H. L. Mencken, The Dole for Bogus Farmers
4) Carey McWilliams, Ill Fares the Land
5) “Migratory Labor: A Social Problem” Fortune

MacLeish and Steinbeck’s writings are important because they both illustrate how people commonly viewed the Okies. MacLeish inaccurately describes the United States’ landscape as nothing more than a cesspool. The photographs, provided by the Farm Security Administration, were not a representation of the entire United States and for him to describe the landscape the way he did does not accurately illustrate the United States’ beauty. He adds that the country has not only lost its beauty, but also the opportunity for its people to advance. “We wonder whether the dream of American liberty was two hundred years of pine and hardwood and three generations of the grass and the generations are up…We wonder if the liberty is done: the dreaming is finished.” It is apparent that the Depression had a very large, negative effect, but to dismiss so easily the possibility of recovery is not plausible.
The Grapes of Wrath does not completely display the entire truth of the Okie’s experience. Later in the novel Steinbeck accurately shows that people like the Joads were driven out of work because machinery was changing farm work, not because of the drought. However, he still begins the novel with describing the drought. He also did not accurately describe the economic institutions that caused the Joads to leave. The author tells the reader that Steinbeck told a story about “Great invisible corporations interlocked with banks supposedly controlled the land around Sallisaw. In fact, however, there were few farming corporations anywhere in Oklahoma.”
The Fortune magazine article that was published just before The Grapes of Wrath did give solid numbers and evidence about the farming life in California. “One in ten ...