The Plight of the Poor: Contemporary Examples of The Grapes of Wrath

In the book The Grapes of Wrath the sharecroppers of the Dustbowl were the "simple people" of the quote. They were referred to as simple in this case because they only wished to live and be with their families in a stable environment. The simple people are the same people that are dispossessed. Dispossessed means cast out or expelled.

That is what happened to the Joads and others during the Depression; they became dispossessed from their land and home and forced to search for work elsewhere. Elsewhere turned out to be California in this tale. There, businesses forced the evicted people to work for almost nothing. So many became unemployed that they could either work for the minimal fares or not have any income at all.

Their plight is similar to that of some of the Mexican immigrants in the United States of America today that are here without proper working papers. These people had to leave their native country because of lack of work and/or bad conditions. They try to support their families on whatever work they can find, much like the Joads tried to. Many times they are forced to work at whatever job will hire them, even if the pay is less than minimum wage.

This is similar to the Okies working for two and a half cents for a certain poundage of fruit or cotton picked. Comparably, the illegal Mexican immigrants work at jobs that can last perhaps a day and are considerably less than the amount that can support families. Many of them send some of their wages back to their relations in Mexico who could not afford to come to America.

This quote also somewhat applies to the factory workers in Asia. When products are imported and sell at retail for overly low prices, it is obvious that those who produced the product are not getting very high wages. The overpopulation issues account for this in Asia, so they are maybe not dispossessed, but their plight is similar.

In order to support their families, often children are forced to work so that they do not starve. In The Grapes of Wrath, Ruthie and Winfield had to work at the peach and cotton farms.

The Grapes of Wrath is, therefore, not only a novel about the plights of the dispossessed, but of the people under unfair working conditions everywhere.