Authors create stories for a number of reasons. Some try to entertain the reader with their wit and humorous characters. While others feel the need to make the readers reanalyze their life. According to Christopher Isherwood, the author of "The Grapes of Wrath as Propaganda,"" he believes just that, The Grapes of Wrath was a form of political propaganda. .
Isherwood asks the reader, "Why isn't The Grapes of Wrath entirely satisfying as a work of art?- The answer is fairly simple. While most renowned novels and other literary works possess some form of propaganda, it is usually so disguised that the reader only feels its presence subconsciously. Isherwood asserts that the propaganda in The Grapes of Wrath however, is overt. "Too often, we feel him at our elbow, explaining, interpreting, interfering with our own independent impressions. And there are moments at which Ma Joad and Casy "otherwise such substantial figures "seem to fade into mere mouthpieces, as the author's voice comes through, like another station on the radio (Bloom's 28)."" This quote was an extraordinary example of how the propaganda in Steinbeck's novel was not well disguised, according to Isherwood. Perhaps though, that Steinbeck was not propagandizing but attempting to bring historical perspective and accuracy to his work. Isherwood could be wrong in his interpretation. .
The Grapes of Wrath, according to Isherwood, was propaganda that made people turn against the "system."" Steinbeck showed the reader the horrible conditions in which the "dust bowl- people had to travel to and live in their new home in California. Although Steinbeck created the characters for his book and made them do and say as he wanted, does not necessarily mean that this book speaks untruthfully about man's inhumanity to man. Historical research would accurately prove instances where these people lived in squalid conditions in camps called "Hoovervilles.
