Thursday, January 11, 2007
Chapter 19
This chapter begins Part Two of the Novel (Part One ended at the end of chapter 11). The Joads have finally reached California, but it is nothing like they imagined. Steinbeck gives an overview of the history of California as well as exposing the living and working conditions of the migrants. He shows how the few oppress the many. Use an example from this chapter and compare it to another example from history or today. You may want to consider the workers in Fast Food Nation, the Iraqi people, women, African Americans, Indians, etc. Do not repeat anyone else's specific examples.
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The farmers in California oppressing the workers is an example of the few oppressing the many. Hitler was part of the Nazi party which was many, oppressing many, many more making this relative to the story. People were treated differently because of things they could not help, such as ethnicity,religion, or homestate, in both cases. These powerful few control the greater population by force.
In an earlier post, I used the oppression of many by a few in Russia. Also, the previous analysis holds true in this situation as well. Anytime that many are oppressed by a few, revolution or some sort of change is prompted by the "oppressed many". An example of this that we are currently studying in history is the Guilded Age in the late 1800's. A few large businesses controlled and had a monopoly over the entire population. These businesses were riddled with corruption and had more money than the government. Some change such as anti trust laws and labor reform occured to improve conditions. Currently, the problems with capitalism that we experienced during the Guilded Age are pointed out and applied to the modern age by Schlosser in Fast Food Nation.
In this chapter people who sought work in California come to find out its not what they dreamed it would be. They are forced into Hoovervilles and treated poorly. They don't own land, they don't own their tents, they don't have money to get medical help, they don't have food to eat, and they constantly live by the land owners rules. This relates to what they African Americans faced when they were brought over to America. They lived by their owners rules. Not only did they not own the land they lived on or the houses they slept in, according to the white man, they didn't even own themselves. They were oppressed, forced into a situation, lacking rights, and unfortunately, there was nothing anyone did to help them.
The conditions described by Steinbeck are horrific. What's even worse is that these same conditions are not strangers to our great nation. If we investigate the conditions of the industrial laborers in the big cities of the late nineteenth century we recognize some of the same atrocities. These terrible environments were especially noticed in the stockyards and meat packing plants of Chicago.
Steinbeck showed how the few farmers kept the pay low and the demand high. Supposedly the high demand was an accident but the driving of the pay lower was worth the stress in the economy. Cuba, and other communist like contries led by a dictator determine what the pay is what is the price of most things and what people get. The few people in power right beside the dictator visably suppress the many people of the country.
The few land owners in California oppress the families that live in the Hoovervilles. When one family plants crop on a farmers land, the family is forced off the land and the crop is destroyed. This is in a way like the situation in Iraq. The people of Iraq want freedom and democracy but Osama Bin Laden wants all the power. He crushes their hopes and dreams by encouraging and planning terrorist attacks on anyone who tries to help the people. Both the Hooverville families and the families in Iraq are suffering because what the desperatly need is out of their reach.
The working conditions are horrible. Long hours, minimal pay. Thousands of people, only five or six job spots. The African Americans are not foreign to this idea. Most being the decendents of African American slaves can relate to the situation of hardship. Not enough jobs or enough pay to go around.
At one point, Chapter 19 states, "Outlanders, foreigners. Sure, they talk the same language, but they ain't the same." This can be directly related to prejudice in America and all around the world. Throughout the twentieth century, African-Americans were treated differently. Despite the fact they were no longer classified as slaves, African-Americans were still looked down upon. Many were American citizens and spoke English, however they were treated differently merely because of their skin color. Obviously, this can be related to how the Okies were treated in California as well. The Okies were also American citizens, bored and raised, who of course spoke English (in their own dialect) who were agreeably also looked down upon by other Americans. Digging even deeper, since the construction of America, women have been looked down upon by men. As most know, it was not until 1920 when the 19th Amendment allowed women to vote. This governmental advancement seems minute when it is taken into account that the first female Supreme Court Justice was not elected until 1981 when Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor. But of course, there still has not been a female president of the United States. Obviously, women are still faced with prejudice from men in some ways, however luckily this situation has improved drastically in the last century. Therefore, the quote, "...they talk the same language, but they ain't the same," can unfortunately still find a place in modern society.
The existance of oppressive, oligrachic, American aristocracies was not exclusive to the agriculture of the West. In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, he describes the horrors of industrial employment. While a fortunate few rest comfortable in their highrises, millions of impoverished Americans and recent immigrants must bare a daily load of unfathomable suffering. Paralleling Stienback's work, Sinclair's novel show how the slaves of the East Coast must compete amongst themselves to work for the lowest wages to receive employment, despite thier inability to adequately provide for their family.
In the opening paragraph of chapter 19 Steinbeck gives some history of Mexico’s involvement with California. He states that California once belonged to Mexico and then “a horde of tattered feverish Americans poured in.” He states that the Americans quarreled over the land, took it, and began building and planting on it. This shows how the few oppress the many because the native Mexicans were oppressed by the American settlers. Since the Americans had advanced technology such as guns they were able to oppress many with few. I relate this to history in the story of the oppression of the Native Americans. America used Manifest Destiny to justify their taking over of the Natives homeland. Settlers often used violence when doing so. The Trail of Tears, the displacement of thousands of Native Americans, is an excellent example of the few oppressing the many. This also relates to the novel in that the migrant workers were oppressed by the big corporations and planters. Steinbeck uses this symbolism of the Americans forcing the Mexicans out of California to set the tone for the rest of the chapter and to make a connection with the migrant workers.
The people of California looked down upon on the “Okies” because they were dirty, took their jobs and lived in horrible conditions. Did the people try to help them? No, they simply gave them jobs that barely paid them to sustain themselves. They were frowned upon in society, but were given no help to escape their situation. This is much like the illegal immigration issue in today’s world. They are paid enough to sustain themselves, and frowned upon in today’s society. Many believe that illegal immigrants cost the United States millions, but without their labor forces our prices would skyrocket. While we frown upon the idea of people coming into our country illegally we do nothing to help the people in their situation.
Having read Fast Food Nation and the Jungle, many immigrants, like the "Okies" travelling to California, hope and dream of a better life. The life they find there is not at all pleasant. They live in poorly titled "houses" and work dangerous, brutal jobs for barely anything at all. The immigrants are treated poorly, at jobs and in other social situations. Many times, people in search of a better life may end up facing a different kind of hardship than the one they were escaping, but a hardship nonetheless. It is easy for the rich leaders to shove the poor newcomers into Hoovervilles, considering they are not forced to live under such atrocious conditions.
The owners of the farms control these poor tenant farmers who have no other choice but to live on the land. In 1948 in a country called South Africa, a thing called apartheid began. This were extremely harsh and severe racial segregation laws. These laws placed whites at the top of the totem pole, despite that they were only about 10% of the population.
Owners have been oppressing their workers since the owning of businesses started. The farmers turned businessmen of this chapter put their workers through poor wages and poor working conditions. Though the government has tried to stop this the businessmen of today have found their way around it by employing illegal immigrants, and because these people are not protected by minimum wage and similar standards they can get away with not obeying the laws.
In California, the workers were oppressed by the farmers. This can be compared to the Jim Crow laws of the the early 1900's, which was a form of oppression used by the Southern white law makers to humiliate the common African-American. While the Black Americans knew they were being treated poorly and were aware that the laws were disgustingly unfair, they did not begin to directly clash with the laws until well after they were instated. In Plessy versus Ferguson, it was decided that "separate but equal" was adequately fair. However, the individuals who were separating the facilities were none other than white supremecists, which was obviously oppressive towards the ill-treated Black Americans.
Going back to my earlier post in chapter 18, I am going to cross-apply that statement to this question as well, focusing on religion as the topic of the few oppressing the many.
Although Religion is an important theme and factor that runs throughout the entire book, not many examples of its power to suppress the many while employing the views of the few are DIRECTLY stated.
In today's bustling world, we often find that the whims of a small percent of the population seems to dominate the entire population. This is both a positive and negative phenonmenon.
On the bad side, it is restricting to have to conform to a few people's expectations, especially when it comes to the country's development as a whole.
On the flip side, we are keeping a sense of moral rightousness by practicing what we are preaching about to the Middle Eastern countries whom we just love dipping our hands into. By listening to everyone's view, we not only broaden our horizens, but we also give equality a chance.
As in many cases the few hold the power, they control the masses by determining their wages. The rich pay the migrants very low because it keeps them rich for one keeps the lower class from rising up and becoming a competition. This is very similar to the large companies of the late 1800's, including the steel manufacturers, railroad workers and meat packers. They all manipulated the poor into working for low wages doing rough and dangerous jobs.
The few oppress the many because they have the upper hand in situations regarding job availability. This is a historical situation that is repaeated in history as the country falls into recessions and the wealthy have the power to not give out full help. For example, evidence has concluded that there really is enough food in the world to feed all of the starving, it is a distribution issue and an issue involving corrupt governments that stops food from getting to the needy.
The "Okies" were traveling to California in search of a new life, but when they arrived a prosperous new life is not what they found. They were shoved into hoovervilles, found low paying jobs, and couldnt find reasonable medical help. Immigrants, especially from Mexico, today expierence similar conditions. Life in Mexico is poor, but crossing the border is not always better. Once here they find cheap unwanted jobs such as construction workers or farmers on large commercial farms. Illegal immigrant employees has become a major issue with our government, but when companies need the work and there are workers will to work the immigrants become oppressed just as the workers did during the Depression.
When the Joad family actually got to California there were not enough jobs and it wasn't what they expected. Many people tried to warn them on how bad the conditions were but they did not listen. Now we have people from all over the world migrating here and thats not always a good thing. Prejudices are still around and if a immigrant comes and takes a job that you wanted that might make them mad. Plus there is so many Americans unemployed as it is, it just adds to the more people looking for a job!
The Japanese Americans during WWII could be an example of how a specific group of people can get treated. The migrant people are looked at as savage people with a hunger to kill, the hunger for food, and the hunger for land. People are scared that the migrant people will take their land because of the stories they have heard, like the stories of the migrant’s grandfathers taking the land away from the Indians. The migrant people just wanted to work to have enough money to feed their family because so many families were starving to death.
The Japanese Americans had a similar story. They came to the U.S. to search for jobs and have better lives. After the Pearl Harbor incident, many people thought that all the Japanese were evil and that they were trying to take over the U.S. People were scared because of all the rumors that were being spread. All these events led to the Japanese Internment Camps. They were different events but they had some similarities.
In chapter nineteen, the power of the few policemen to do whatever they feel like, allows them to force the migrants continually lower in society. The farmers and influential landowners in the area support the police injustice, which gives them even greater authority over the workers.
This situation resembles the discrimination against African Americans in the years following the Civil War. The governments passed legislation such as the Jim Crow laws to oppress the Black society. The white society at the time supported the police force and government in their injustice towards the African Americans. The situations are nearly identical except in the novel the discrimination is due to economic status, and in the other the discrimination is due to race.
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