How does California seem to modern America? Violent. Crowded.

Filled with bad

people. People who live in cities and have lost touch with the earth. These people
are portrayed in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath as Californians. Yet, people from
the Midwest flocked to California seeking prosperity and opportunity. Their land
had been taken by the banks and turned into cotton fields. They were left homeless
and desperate. These people sought to work in the fields where they could eat a
peach or sit under a tree to relax.

But there wasn’t a California as they had imagined. In fact, the world they entered
into when they arrived in California was a cold one. The locals excluded the
newcomers and forced them to leave. The locals tormented the foreigners, calling
them ‘Okies’ and telling them that they are unwanted. There was no work and when
there was, the workers were underpaid and forced to work for low wages. California
was hell.

But John Steinbeck creates this novel to fit the “romance” archetype. In this
archetype, the hero makes a journey, encounters problems in his path which he
overcomes, and reaches his final destination. The hero of the novel must be larger
than life, strong, and different from others. He must be a natural leader and
greatly glorified. The earth resembles the Garden of Eden, or a ‘paradise.’ He must
be in touch with the earth.

The Grapes of Wrath has many obvious connections to the romance archetype, and many
subtle connections. One of the more obvious connections is the journey. The main
characters, the Joads, embark on a journey from Kansas to California. In the 1930’s
Kansas was in the ‘Dust Bowl’, a part of the Midwest where the land dried up,
causing fierce dust storms that could kill people. California, on the other hand,
was the beautiful, fertile valley, where people could pick peaches, become
prosperous, and eventually buy a house to settle down. The fact that the Joads
traveled from a terrible place to a better place fits the romance archetype. This
better place they search for is the connection to the earth that they once had in
Kansas. They envision that they can find it in California as well.