today is the birthday of john Steinbeck
Feb. 27th, 2004 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ambitious_wenchRemember John Steinbeck?
Today is his birthday. His most famous work was "The Grapes of Wrath" which chronicles the lives of migrant farm workers during the dust bowl.
For those that don't know it, the dust bowl was a tragic time in American history. In the 1930's due to improper farming techniques, the soil eroded, and as a result, dust storms formed. Much of the American farming community was utterly destroyed.
To learn more, go to: http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html
This along with the Great Depression drove folks from the Great Plains states west. in Salinas California, there was a great disdain for "Okies", the folks who had traveled to the fertile Salinas Valley from Oklahoma. "Goat ropers", "red necks" were the disparaging terms used against them.
The title "The Grapes of Wrath" comes from the first verse of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", by Julia Ward Howe.
I'm quite happy to say "no relation"--I find this song hideous, embodying everything I despise about Christianity.
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on."
The book "The Grapes of Wrath" is not an easy read. The end of the book tells of the stillbirth of a baby, and the odd image of a young woman breast-feeding an old, frail man.
It won Steinbeck a Pulitzer in 1940.
Today is his birthday. His most famous work was "The Grapes of Wrath" which chronicles the lives of migrant farm workers during the dust bowl.
For those that don't know it, the dust bowl was a tragic time in American history. In the 1930's due to improper farming techniques, the soil eroded, and as a result, dust storms formed. Much of the American farming community was utterly destroyed.
To learn more, go to: http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html
This along with the Great Depression drove folks from the Great Plains states west. in Salinas California, there was a great disdain for "Okies", the folks who had traveled to the fertile Salinas Valley from Oklahoma. "Goat ropers", "red necks" were the disparaging terms used against them.
The title "The Grapes of Wrath" comes from the first verse of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", by Julia Ward Howe.
I'm quite happy to say "no relation"--I find this song hideous, embodying everything I despise about Christianity.
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on."
The book "The Grapes of Wrath" is not an easy read. The end of the book tells of the stillbirth of a baby, and the odd image of a young woman breast-feeding an old, frail man.
It won Steinbeck a Pulitzer in 1940.
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Date: 2004-02-27 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-27 07:18 am (UTC)Just FWIW - it's a very classical image. A saint (honestly, I forget who) achieved sainthood by visiting her aged father (I think) in prison where he was being starved to death, and breastfed him (she'd had twins). There are lots and lots of classical pictures of this incident. I thought of it immediately I read the ending of The Grapes of Wrath - it would surprise me if John Steinbeck hadn't intended it.
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Date: 2004-02-27 11:06 am (UTC)