In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck tells the story of the Joad family and shows why they act as they do by leaving their home in Oklahoma and traveling to California. In so doing, they put strains on their family structure and on personal relationships and find that they have also left behind what was a generations-long stability for an unstable and uncertain future. For Steinbeck, the Joads are both individuals and representatives of a class of people who made this journey, took a chance, and changed their lives for good or ill.
The people who moved West in the migration that took place during the Great Depression were escaping from the heartland of America and seeking the American Dream in a new place, in the golden land of California. They were forced to make this move first because of the change in climate where they had been living, a change which made a fertile land into a dustbowl, and second because the economics of the Great Depression meant they could get no assistance to get through the bad times and no jobs to support their families. They turned to California because that was the legendary goal of pioneers and the land of milk and honey, supposedly a place where people could go and find jobs as well as fertile ground, sunshine, and plenty of room. In effect, the Great Depression forced many Americans to redefine their goals for the future. They looked back to the era of the pioneers for a heritage that could guide them, and like the Joads, they set off for the West like pioneers.
In The Grapes of Wrath, in addition to their pioneer history, the Joads look to the one guiding light they feel they can depend on, the Bible, though for some of the Joads the heritage they look to is the somewhat distorted religion of Jim Casy. In one sense, the Joad family is recreating the entire American experience by moving westward, not unlike a wagon train moving toward the frontier. However, by the time of thi...