Grapes + Thousand Acres (A Thousand Acres of Grapes of Wrath)

This week the Grapes of Wrath and A Thousand Acres groups gave their presentations. I was surprised to find out that the Grapes of Wrath was criticized for portraying both Californians and the migrant workers; but was later criticized for being “too sentimental.” It seems odd to me that there would be such a shift in how this novel is seen by readers. When it first came out the book was seen as too pessimistic but is now seen as too sentimental and optimistic which seems strange to me. From a previous reading of this book I can see how it is possible to not like the way that the migrant workers are romanticized or how the Californians are universally demonized. It can seem overly simplistic but I believe it was probably necessary to show people what these migrants went through. This simplicity allowed the complicated labor conflicts of the time to be easily understood but probably oversimplified the Californians side of the conflict. The Californians were probably afraid of the migrant workers taking their jobs because they were willing to take far lower wages. This would have led to their families to become just as poor as the migrant workers were at the time; perhaps this fear was unfounded but it might not be that difficult to sympathize with them.

            In A Thousand Acres we see the Cook family taking on more than they can handle with their farm. The father wanted to create a large scale farm without changing their farming practices to match the size which led to the farm’s downfall. They wanted to have a foot in both worlds rather than stand firmly in the traditional farming world or the new industrial farming world. They found out the hard way that you cannot have both. The father’s greed and simultaneous refusal to advance in technology led the rest of the family to have to deal with the bad situation he created. The family couldn’t sustain the farm the way their father wanted them to which created a lot of tension between them. This shows how greed can easily destroy the family and how industrial farms can help that process along. I would not say that industrial farming or large farms are inherently good or bad or that it wasn’t the father’s greed that was to blame; simply that large farms was the problem in this particular situation. I also believe that it could be possible to have the best of both traditional farming and industrial farming. Many in our class didn’t like Fair Oaks Farm because of their focus on profit; however to many other people Fair Oaks shows that organic, traditional farming can be applied to a large, industrial scale. Whether you believe that they have taken too far to the industrial side or that they have reached the perfect balance it proves that it IS possible. Isn’t that what we want? For large scale farms to care for their fields and animals? To be more ecologically sound? Shouldn’t we be more supportive of their efforts? We should try and remember that their visitor center is meant for young kids who live in the city to get a taste of what the country life is like. Yes it’s a romanticized idealistic portrayal, but most of our readings have been that way just on the traditional side. Take that however you wish I’m simply pointing it out.

            To bring it back to the novels; both novels showed how easily greed can cloud one’s judgement. In A Thousand Acres the theme of “original place” or loyalty to your hometown is lauded as a good thing to have because people want to take care of their home and place. On the flip side I believe that in the Grapes of Wrath we see this same concept being used to justify the mistreatment of the migrant workers. To the Californians the migrants were taking over THEIR town and trying to take THEIR land. Why should they share with people trying to take their original place? As with most of the concepts we have discussed in this class the idea of original place can be applied in a good or bad way depending on the character of the person.