The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a book that follows the extraordinary life of Tom Joad and his family as they are on a journey to California. The book is based on the disaster of the early 1930 the dust bowl. I was a little resistant to picking up the book when I heard about it because to me the dust bowl was just another boring historical subject that I didn’t want to read. But When I first started reading, it was already beating my expectations because it starts off with them ruined by the dust bowl and they need a plan as to how they are going to live and that is when I knew I was going to be in for a good adventure. 

When everything they had was destroyed, The Joads decided to follow the American dream which was to move west, get a job and become rich. I really liked this aspect of the book because they think that it is going to be just as easy as that when that life was nearly impossible to achieve at the time. I think that Steinbeck really did a great job emphasizing how hard it was to live the American dream during the country's economic stability at the time. 

The book is great at showing the decisions that the Joads Had to make during this time because before they were going to move west they had a home, land, and money. Migrating meant that they had to start all over again. They had decided that they were going to migrate to California in hopes of beginning a new successful life. I also think that this relates to our class because Steinbeck really shows the hope that the American dream gave people during the time. 

I think Steinbeck did a great job describing the poverty of the people and talks about these little camps called Hoovervilles which were named after the president Herbert Hoover for not doing enough when he had the chance during the depression and shows how people were living and he does this with such good detail. For example: “He never asked again, for there was a Hooverville on the edge of every town. The rag town lay close to water; and the houses were tents, weed-thatched enclosures, paper houses, a great junk pile. The man drove family in and became a citizen of Hooverville, always they were called Hooverville” (p232) This description can paint a picture in my head and it gives me a great sense as to what the Hoovervilles were like during the time.

Overall I think that The Grapes of Wrath is a great book that captures what life was like back then while giving us a fiction story in a nonfiction time and can give us a perspective of what life was like. I recommend this book to people who are interested in books about the 1930s and anyone who really likes books about adventures and drama.