Materialism and Inhumanity in John steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and The Pearl

CHAPTER II :

DRAWBACKS OF MECHANIZATION

1 - A NEW AGRARIAN SYSTEM

After the industrial revolution, the dust storm brought about the damage of the earth, crops as well as the loss of many famers' lands. Thus, man had efficient control on the nature because having at his disposal competitive tools of work. Therefore, the American society became more modern with new machines. With the introduction of equipment in the field of agriculture and industry, manual agriculture changed from industrial farming. Consequently, tractors replace small farmers.

Thus, in The Grapes of Wrath the rural areas in America were mechanized which cause huge decrease of farmers in the lands as well as the loss of small farmers' job. After the mechanization of the agriculture, rich landowners created a system in which farmers become poorer and were always in debt. This fact pressed poor farmers to mortgage their lands to the bank as one can see through the chapter one in The Grapes of Wrath, because farmers were unable to pay their debts. On the one hand, landlords and big farmers resorted to a system in which migrant workers sank into poverty and on the other hand, property-owners used ways to preserve their social positions in a country where to remain at the summit demanded a lot of means and force.

It is interesting to remark that «in the early thirties many farmers were victims of Franklin Roosevelt's 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act, which required landlords to reduce their cotton estate, fortified by the A.A.A. subsidy»^8(*). And in chapter two of The Grapes of Wrath, landowners evict their tenants and consolidate their property. Thus, it was the contribution of the government which allowed landlords to acquire tractors and decrease their reliance on tenant families.^9(*)

Thus, through this fact, Steinbeck shows that the consequences of this policy cause strong unemployment. It is interesting also to notice that the change of ownership and the mechanization of the land are also responsible for farmers' migration. This new system is profitable to the landowners who became richer. Consequently, small farmers are not able to cope anymore with this competition. That is the reason why poor farmers are obliged to give up their native lands to the detriment of rich landlords.

Steinbeck shows through The Grapes of Wrath that this agrarian system is built in such a way that big property-owners control the market and use it as they wish. In fact, landlords resort to a policy of changing price so that they have a foretaste on the market course. Therefore, they have the opportunity to reduce the harvest but also the possibility to increase or diminish the price of goods. This system uses often some tactics to decrease automatically the prices in case of overtaking and frost of the land. In the same way, the evolution of the policy better privileges the consideration of environmental requirement and the reduction of the harvest in order to make the land more productive. Thus, small farmers with their insignificant means are not able to maintain themselves to this vacillating state of affairs anymore, that's to say the fluctuation of prices.

The rich landowners, the defender of this agricultural system are used to affirming that capitalism creates stability and advancement in economic and social life. Thus, one can notice that the mechanization of the agriculture creates also confusion and joblessness. And that is the motivation that drives Steinbeck to express through The Grapes of Wrath that the agricultural system is the first reason that incites people to adopt a strong feeling of appropriation and displacement.

In his novel: The Endangered American Dream, Edward Nicolae Lutiwak affirms also that «people need more, that's to say American people are not satisfied with what they get». This dissatisfaction impels the people to espouse progressively selfish behaviors and attitudes to get money. This discontent is also visible in The Grapes of Wrath where rich landowners change everyday the methods of cultivation in order to get profit. But, this change creates also social and economic troubles because the new property-owners have strong desires to improve their methods of farming. Thus, the fact of mechanizing the agriculture is sometimes destructive because landlords are concerned only with the quantity of harvest. Landowners wanted to attain a certain level of production that is the reason why they resorted to new techniques. But, these methods are so harmful that Edward Nicolae Lutiwak calls it «the speed of the creative destruction.» ^1(*)0 In other words, these new systems, instead of creating only good thing, generate also social perturbations as much in the job market as in communal life.

Consequently, everyone does one's utmost to preserve one's social status even if it is necessary to make recourse to violence in order to reach one's personal interest. Thus, this hard situation drives the American society into a supreme disorder.

* ⁸ http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-9545/Agricultural-Adjustment-Act. 05/07/07 à 18h 21

* ⁹ Vincent Bernard (dir.), Histoire des États-Unis, Paris, Champs Flammarion, 1997, p.200

* ¹⁰ Edward Nicolae Luttwak, The Endangered American Dream, Touchstone Book Edition, 1993.Translated by Sophie Duloq,

Le Rêve Américain en danger, Odile Jacob Edition, 1995, pp 10 - 11