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Shattered American Dream

Every immigrant has a dream, a vision full of hope expecting to make it wherever he goes. In grapes of wrath, they had this vision too. “[People are] movin’ ‘cause they got to. That’s why [we] folks always move. Movin’ cause [we] want somepin better’n what [we] got” (Steinbeck, 128). The American dream was seen as a simple concept by the immigrants in the Grapes of Wrath. According to them, “You can reach anywhere and pick an orange” (Steinbeck, 34). They thought they will just go to California and get plenty of jobs for everyone and get rich. This is highlighted in page 34,”there’s work there and it never gets cold”.
What the immigrants did not know was that finding an ideal life in the west was nearly impossible. Additionally, those who were looking for an ideal life were corrupted by the system. In his book, Steinbeck said that the attainment of the American dream was nearly impossible due to the economic instability and constant government interference. The Joads found unpredictable jobs in California (Ownby 73). They failed to achieve the American dream and so they did not succeed in California. Before they migrated from Oklahoma, the Joads had a good life. They had land, a home and money. Their migration was fuelled by their hopes of finding success and a better life in California.
The Grapes of Wrath is set during the great depression. The great depression was a result of the inaction by the federal government which led to failing of the financial institutions. Many people were out of work since jobs were scarce hence a rise in poverty and economic hardships. It basically focuses on the Joads family who move to America in pursuit of the American dream. The economic hardships, drought, changes in financial and agricultural industries forced them to abandon their Oklahoma home for California. In their Oklahoma home, the Joads were trapped in a hopeless situation and in the dust bowl. Together with others, they migrated to California where the American dream promised them land, dignity, a future and plenty of jobs. The American dream prospect the Joads were following is shattered way too early even before they reach the Promised Land. They hear a lot of stories from other people coming from California about the hardships there. These stories diminished their hopes of achieving the American dream and they had to face reality that all was not easy in the land of opportunities.
An overabundance of labor supply in California makes them not to get a decent wage. This is worsened by lack of labor rights. Furthermore, the big corporate farmers collude to stifle the smaller farmers. The Joads are in a desperate poor state. The Grapes of Wrath was aimed at the people who were responsible for the great depression (Steinbeck, 1939). The novel hints that cooperation between the immigrants will be the key to deliverance of the workers but this doesn’t materialize. The level of poverty to which the Joads and their fellow migrant workers had is shown when they move to the government camp. The simple amenities there amaze them a lot. For example Winfield and Ruthie have never had the opportunity of using a toilet before. On the other hand, Jessie Bullitt narrates to Ma Joad how some of the residents in the camp are finding it hard to use the appliances found in the camp.
The hardships of the migrant workers are worsened by the banking elite who lessen the workers’ wages. We can't depend on it. The bank – the monster – has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size. (Steinbeck Chapter 5, paragraph 11). The farmer’s Association uses underhand tactics to harden the lives of the workers in the camp by undermining even the deputies for their own benefit. To overcome these hardships, the workers looked for amusement like drinking in order to forget their problems. Drinking made the workers sleep (Steinbeck 65). According to Steinbeck, death was a friend and sleep was his brother (Steinbeck, chapter 22-23). A lot of greed was exposed in the Grapes of Wrath. During the dust bowl, big companies took over land and this forced many families to look for other places to live. Therefore the Joads family had to relocate to California to start a new different life.
The grapes of wrath coincided with the great depression. Although this novel champions for the rights of the poor, it has been widely criticized. It presents the government as a savior of the immigrants by establishing government camps. On the other hand, the government is a co-conspirator. These complications about the government are basically fiction symptoms which present the authors desired image. There is a clear failure of the government systems in the book. The reason why this system did not work is not explained. The causes of poverty then and now need to be compared in order to know why the system failed. By looking at the events happening during the time the book was written, it becomes clear that the events depicted are due to poor government policies (Adams 128). These include the government distorting the markets, corporatism and property right which were designed badly. These poor government policies can be applicable to the present poverty issues. Today we have an expanding federal government which increased the consumption of resources which are productive, inflationary monetary policy. Additionally, entrepreneurship is heavily regulated by the government.
The distortion caused by the government in the Grapes of Wrath led to a boom which was artificially created. This led to a bust which was disastrous. Farmers and land owners were left with big debts. Many lost their property because they were unable to pay these debts. Also the government passed laws which distorted the markets further. They encouraged unproductivity by paying landowners who did not grow on their land lowering supply and increasing crop prices. Distortion by the government of the markets is a recipe for modern day poverty. Due to credit expansion which is allowed by the Federal Reserve fractional banking system, a boom bust cycle has taken over. This has caused a lot of catastrophes like the housing crisis. Laws which provided the incentives for subprime mortgages distorted markets severely as well as the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae quasi-public corporations which guarantee home loans. Next was the worldwide food shortage which was a result of farmers selling corn for fuel instead of food. The government offered subsidies and a hard push for ethanol in 2007.
Land owners in the state of Oklahoma rented land to tenants which they had claimed in the land races. The tenants could not justify improving the landowners property since they did not think of it as their own. The landowner had little incentive to develop it since he did not stay on the property. Since the land owners were unable to develop the land they purchased, they had to rent it out. This homesteading policy was advocated for by the government and it did not consider the privately established property rights. It furthermore distributed plots arbitrarily and requirements which were not market based (Anderson, pg.10). These ways of acquiring property contrasted with Murray Rothbard in “Man, Economy and State” an unused land may be converted to private property by mixing the labor of an individual with that of the natural resources, through inheritance or by an individual exchanging property voluntarily. This is how the property rights should be approached. This would have prevented misallocation of capital, arbitrary homesteading by the government. Furthermore, the feeling of ownership of land would have made the owners to develop it. In modern society, zoning and the regulation of property by the government continue to affect the feeling of ownership thereby undermining the advantages or benefits of a property rights based system.
Law enforcement was another theme which was prevalent in the grapes of wrath. The deputies were undermined by the big corporations. They ensured the big corporations continued to make profits while stifling the competitors. This practice is a nature of corporatism and not a symptom of capitalism. Corporatism is the use of direct force or manipulation to achieve the desired objective. This cannot be referred to as capitalism because the government or corporations advocate for monopoly where they decide who wins and who loses. This kind of manipulation removes the small businesses which cannot adhere to the strict rules and unfavorable regulations leaving the big businesses to conduct business.in our modern and current economic system, the government still uses its monopoly powers to discourage competition and influence the markets. This trend escalates the level of poverty and economic depression. Following the American dream in this situation and economic environment becomes a pipe dream for many migrants and American citizens who are not rich.
The idea of the American dream is enshrined in the declaration of independence. It states that all people are equally created and are given certain alienable rights by their creator which includes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This makes the American dream a national ethos of the United States of America. According to James Truslow Adams in Epic of America, there should be an opportunity for everyone according to achievement or ability hence life is supposed to be fuller and richer for each and every American regardless of the social class.
The American dream is getting a new meaning as time goes by. Today it encompasses a global vision and personal components such as upward mobility and home ownership whereas historically it came from the mystery associated with frontier life. The American dream has been blamed for increasing expectations of immigrants while being credited for helping build a common American society (Rothbard 97). According to majority of Americans today, achieving the American dream is determined by hard work and determination. But a minority of Americans argues that success is not guaranteed through hard work and determination in America.
The modern American citizen consumer has divided the American dream into four aspects of consumerism. Firstly is the abundance dream. All Americans were proud to have everything making United States of America the richest state in the world. Second was the dream of a democracy for goods. Here everyone has access to goods regardless of gender, race or ethnicity. This will set the Americans apart from other aristocratic states in the world where only the rich and those in power or those with connections to the government were the only ones given access to luxury. The third dream the new consumer culture addressed was the freedom of choice. Immigrants and Americans generally fashioned their way of life or lifestyle as they wanted unlike in other states where freedom was curtailed and limited (Obama 43). Lastly was the dream of novelty which broadened the consumers experience due to the ever changing fashions and markets. It was in sharp contrast to traditional culture and politics which were conservatism (Ownby, 1999).
The idea of the American dream is however losing faith. Many immigrants who arrived in the United States had high hopes of making it but not all were lucky. To them the American dream was shattered and it became a fruitless pursuit. There are many cases which challenge the idea that America is the land of opportunity. The upward mobility of Americans is average like in other countries. Furthermore, recent research revealed that Americans have lower rates of income mobility when compared to other countries. This fact contradicts the idea of the American dream. A lot of the problems associated with the American dream are associated with the government’s ill planned policies. In his 2006 memoir The Audacity of Hope, president Barrack Obama then a United States senator promised to reclaim the American dream by implementing wise and sound policies if he won the presidential election.

Poverty and economic depression today is at an all-time high. There are many factors contributing to this that were not there in the 1930s but are present today. During recessions, the government creates inflation by lowering interest rates and printing more money. This inflation is intentional. The interventionist monetary policy leads to an increase of prices for goods. This is a bad idea since goods become expensive when unemployment increases. Recessions lead to American losing their jobs hence a high level of unemployment. The government thus lowers the real wage but maintains the same or a higher nominal wage of the workers (Rothbard 118). This makes the dollar loose value but the works are given the impression that they are still being paid the same amount of money. There has been a steady increase of government spending since the 1900s. This spending has increased drastically from less than 10 percent of the gross domestic product to between 35 and 40 percent of the gross domestic product in a period range of thirty years. This means that the government uses most of the country’s resources leaving less for the economy hence hindering economic growth.
Conclusion
The grapes of wrath events are the end result of bad government policies like property rights which are enforced, use of law enforcement to discourage competition and the intentional distortion by the government of markets (Steinbeck 102). These issues relate directly and can be applied to the issues causing poverty and economic depression in the modern day society. However, according to critics, the book did not provide a clear explanation as to why the systems put in place by the government did not work to the benefit of the citizens.

Works cited
Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. Taylor & Francis, 1938.
Anderson, Terry Lee, and Peter Jensen Hill. The not so wild, wild west: Property rights on the frontier. Stanford University Press, 2004.
Obama, Barack. "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (New York: Crown, 2006)." Back to context.
Ownby, Ted. American dreams in Mississippi: consumers, poverty, & culture, 1830-1998. Univ of North Carolina Press, 1999.
Rothbard, Murray Newton. Man, economy, and state. Vol. 2. Princeton, NJ: D. van Nostrand, 1962.
Steinbeck, John. "The Grapes of Wrath. 1939." New York: Viking Penguin (1976).