Steinbeck himself had experience of working in California as a young man prior to the migrant crisis, and so his visceral descriptions of labouring in the hard sun come from personal experience. The Salinas lettuce strike descends into violence in September 1936. Vigilantism grew in the area that Steinbeck once knew and loved.
He had a marine biology degree, leading to his love and knowledge of all things nature. Over the years, Steinbeck grew to believe that there is an inextricable connection between nature and mankind. Perhaps why agrarianism is one of the major themes of the novel.
In August 1936, three years prior to The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck published a serious of newspaper articles for the San Francisco News on migrant farm workers. These were accompanied by moving black and white photographs which famously humanised the migrants, for example 'Migrant Mother', an image of a woman with her many children sheltering from the weather. These articles were reprinted into a pamphlet later on, and eventually made into fiction to have a greater impact on the general public of America.
He's widely considered a proletarian writer, from the working class writer for the class-conscious proletariat.
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