THREE ENEMIES OF THE WORKER IN THE GRAPES OF WRATH: THE BANK, MECHANISATION, UNEMPLOYMENT

Abstract With its various effects, the Great Depression was one of the biggest events that shaped the modern world. As John Steinbeck handles in The Grapes of Wrath, unemployment, hunger and homelessness spread, and workers had to leave their hometowns and migrate to big cities in order to eat a piece of bread. One of the issues handled by Steinbeck is the influence of the banks as the representative power of the capital. Due to the widespread unemployment, people are unable to find permanent jobs, and as a result, they fail to earn enough money to meet their needs. This fact force them to depend on banks for finance. Yet, as they cannot find money to pay their debts, they have to sell everything they own. Banks make people landless, unemployed, homeless, broke and even hungry. It is easy to understand the harsh realities of that period thanks to the journey of the Joad family in the novel. In this article, first information will be given about what caused the birth of the American capitalist system and how this system became successful in its development. And then how the system is reflected in The Grapes of Wrath will be discussed. How capitalism successfully operated through banks, machinery and the resultant widespread unemployment will also be analyzed. Finally, how this poison spread into poor people’s lives through the loan system of the banks made people increasingly selfish and how this selfishness turned them into deadly monsters will be explained, by taking into account the events that Joad family encountered on their journey to find a better life. Keywords: The Great Depression, Capitalism, Banks, Grapes of Wrath, The Joad family