John Steinbeck: The Grapes of

            John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wreath.
             In the fall of 1937 Steinbeck made several trips into the agricultural areas of California in preparation for his strike novel, and went there to observe the squatters` camps near Salinas and Bakersfield. There he gathered materials for `Dubious Battle in California` and a series of seven other articles called `The Harvest Gypsies`, which appeared in the San Francisco News. During one period that autumn he lived in one of the federal migrant camps in Central California and observed the living conditions among migrant workers. In his novel `The Grapes of Wreath` we can see his attitude towards people and conditions and the extremes of poverty, injustice and suffering. But the compassion did not carry Steinbeck into propagandism, or blind him to his responsibilities as a novelist.
             He tried to follow the ideal of writing truly, without tricks and without cheating. He finished his novel late in 1938, when arose the problem of printable language. Steinbeck warned the publishers that no words must be changed, even `shit-heels` must remain.
             `The Grapes of Wrath` is evaluated as a document rather as a novel. Even aside from this fact, the novel had the vulnerability of all social fiction - it was subject to attack on it facts. Steinbeck was accused of giving an untrue picture of migrants` life (for example in `Grapes of Gladness` and `The Truth About John Steinbeck and the Migrants`); however, professors of sociology, ministers and government officials put themselves on record that the writer`s information was accurate.
             The book itself was banned and burned on both political and pornographic grounds. There were some extreme attacks on the novel, for example, the author of `The Truth About John Steinbeck and the Migrants` wrote: `I can think of no other novel which advances the idea of class war and promotes hatred of class against class more than does `The Grapes of Wreath`.