SFG75
Well-Known Member
I'm currently reading six books, one of them being The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. A good link regarding some of the highlights of the book can be found here. You might also want to frequent NPR's online article as well, for some good, in-depth discussion.
I can't help but feel a somewhat close feeling to the book since my grandfather whom I was very close to, lived through the great depression. He grew up on a farm and his father was a very cruel individual. While Herbert Hoover and his ilk dined their fat jowls on some of the best food money could buy, my grandfather was eating raddish sandwiches and had to kill an entire herd of swine and dispose of them in a pit on a hot day. He remembered the experience all throughout his life, though he only told my mother about life in those days.
The Great Depression featured a good deal of unrest as up to 30% of the population at a given point and time was unemployed. You had the Bonus Army march, there was even a reported coup plot, later detailed by former Gen. Smedley Butler of the USMC. An itneresting link on that can be found here.
In reading this book, I can't help but think of America today. While we are not in a depression(unemployment is roughly 5% or less) things are looking bad for many people. For one, you have Wal-Mart, which is now being sude for the following actions:
Wal-Mart also wrote an official memorandum to managers and store owners stating that to cut costs and medical coverage, they should hire younger, healthier workers and axe those who aren't. Not only that, but United Airlines was given permission to cut 9.8 billion in pensions. Other companies such as Lockheed are engaging in the same duplicitous actions.
-Will we need another Grapes of Wrath like depression before corporate America and citizens elsewhere realize that they are being taken for a ride?
-Do you trust your present employer?
-Was Steinbeck too political in his writings?, or not harsh enough?
-Who is our Steinbeck of today? Who will sound the alarm for what employers are doing to employees?
-What resemblances do we see today that is still relevant to Steinbeck's work?
Any thoughts?
**Yes, this is political, but in the context of a book. So neener, neener, neener!.
I can't help but feel a somewhat close feeling to the book since my grandfather whom I was very close to, lived through the great depression. He grew up on a farm and his father was a very cruel individual. While Herbert Hoover and his ilk dined their fat jowls on some of the best food money could buy, my grandfather was eating raddish sandwiches and had to kill an entire herd of swine and dispose of them in a pit on a hot day. He remembered the experience all throughout his life, though he only told my mother about life in those days.
The Great Depression featured a good deal of unrest as up to 30% of the population at a given point and time was unemployed. You had the Bonus Army march, there was even a reported coup plot, later detailed by former Gen. Smedley Butler of the USMC. An itneresting link on that can be found here.
In reading this book, I can't help but think of America today. While we are not in a depression(unemployment is roughly 5% or less) things are looking bad for many people. For one, you have Wal-Mart, which is now being sude for the following actions:
Wal-Mart also wrote an official memorandum to managers and store owners stating that to cut costs and medical coverage, they should hire younger, healthier workers and axe those who aren't. Not only that, but United Airlines was given permission to cut 9.8 billion in pensions. Other companies such as Lockheed are engaging in the same duplicitous actions.
-Will we need another Grapes of Wrath like depression before corporate America and citizens elsewhere realize that they are being taken for a ride?
-Do you trust your present employer?
-Was Steinbeck too political in his writings?, or not harsh enough?
-Who is our Steinbeck of today? Who will sound the alarm for what employers are doing to employees?
-What resemblances do we see today that is still relevant to Steinbeck's work?
Any thoughts?
**Yes, this is political, but in the context of a book. So neener, neener, neener!.