John Steinbeck's main technique his writing is in portrayed in the settings. He uses animals, climate, and weather to symbolize the points he tries to make in The Grapes of Wrath. California signifies security and happiness. However, despite the expectations the western state provided, when the Joads arrived they discovered a harsh, barren desert. Their former home in Oklahoma was now destroyed and trenched. The settings in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was crucial to the story and symbolic of the hardships and oppression suffered by migrant laborers during the Great Depression.
Oklahoma was home to the Joad family for years. The characters had been raised there. The area in which they lived was acutely dusty. Dust storms often would be so severe that citizens were forced to remain in their homes. As a result of one such storm, all crops of corn were destroyed and the farmers were left in financial despair. The bankers, having seen this, took advantage of the given situation and foreclosed people's homes. At the time poverty was so severe that prison was a welcoming sanctuary. .
Fraudulent signs of hope were merely miles away in sunny California, a place of sunshine and beauty, but most importantly: work. The migration to higher expectations would be one of difficulty and great trial. Families barreled into hardly-usable jalopies referred to as cars and headed west. For the time being, these rickety pieces of junk would be their new, temporary home. Thousands traveled Highway 66, a road of light for refugees from the dust and diminishing past lives. Along the way there would be those that helped the desperate and those that feared being unable to feed their own families. The road was harsh and nearly covered in desert. Loved ones died, but were buried in a less than appropriate landscape, for financial and safety reasons. The road was long, but seemingly well-worth the journey.
