Reform Measures of Progressivism

However, these groups did share a number of commonalities in spite of their wide-ranging gender, race and class concerns. Most reform measures purported an ostensible moderation that was really a "conservative movement dominated by business interests who turned to government in order to protect themselves...." Moreover, the reforms of the Progressive Era shared the goal of fostering economic opportunity, a goal which simultaneously reified individualism, embraced the traditional Protestant work ethic and reinforced traditional notions of family unity. Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Bell's Out of This Furnace (1941) illustrate how two groups of people--Dust Bowl migrants and Slavic immigrants, respectively--were systematically victimized under the auspices of a paternalistic society whose moral tone and nostalgia for the past in actuality sought to preserve the status quo.

The proliferation of reform groups, frequently "mora

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Casey, his prisoner, insists on some compensation. Progressivism ironically used a religion that purports tolerance as a vehicle to judge the disenfranchised. Progressive reform groups reinforced social structures such as institutionalized Christianity. For this reason both Steinbeck and Bell image Christianity negatively, and even sometimes dismiss it altogether. Bell, for example, believed that "the Churches did not predictably side with the working man's desire to improve his lot"; therefore the characters of Mike Dobrejcak and Dobie Dobrejcak are unreligous, whereas their real life antecedents were predictably Christian. And in The Grapes of Wrath, one of Steinbeck's recurring motifs is the negative representation of the Church. The preacher (and hero) Casey has given up Christianity because he has seen its artificial constraint and hypocrisy in virtually all of his social encounters. Casey insists that he is no longer a preacher, and as he moves closer to his final role of martyred union organizer, it is clear that Steinbeck is casting the hypocrisy of the Church and the need of the working class in opposite roles. When Ma Joad meets Mrs. Sandry, a pious, judgmental Christian, Ma informs her that she sees nothing
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Darwinism Progressivism, Grapes Wrath, Bell's Furnace, Steinbeck Bell, James Patterson, Casey Christianity, Roosevelt's Deal, Steinbeck's Joad, Dust Bowl, Christians You're, grapes wrath, progressive era, reforms progressive era, moral tone, status quo, social forces, bowl migrants, public welfare, plight poor, sought preserve, dust bowl,
Approximate Word count = 1445
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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