The Labor Strike
Steinbeck himself outlined what the intended symbolism of the labor strike was to be in a correspondence with friends. He wrote that he chose to make a simple labor strike in the orchard valley region of California a symbol of “man’s eternal, bitter warfare with himself.”
Dakin's Truck
Dakin is very proud of his new truck. In fact, he admits that he admits that he doesn’t own anything but the truck and some camping equipment. For him, the ownership of the truck represents a step up the ladder. It is a small thing in comparison, but the truck becomes symbolic of the American Dream, especially as it relates to immigrant laborers.
The Broken Ladder
The old, ramshackle ladder from which Old Dan falls and breaks his hip becomes the representative object of ownership’s commitment to increasing their profits over spending to protect the health and welfare of the workers who earn them those profits.
The Torgas Vallley
As the location for a battle of good versus evil, the setting of the novel—the Torgas Valley—is quite early and succinctly delineated as Edenic. The imagery at the beginning of the novel situate the orchards as a place of innocence and perfection that is about to experience the Fall.
“The afternoon sun glanced on the tops of the apple trees…the orchard was alive…The overripes dropped with dull plops to the ground underneath the trees. Somewhere, hidden in a tree-top, a whistling virtuoso trilled.”
Doc Burton
The apolitical Doc Burton is really more symbol than fleshed out character. Which could go a long way toward explaining his abrupt and permanent disappearance from the narrative midway through. Doc Burton is Steinbeck’s stand-in; he is the symbolic personification of Steinbeck’s “non-teleological” philosophy which tries to answer the question of how and what a situation may be rather than why it is one thing instead of another.
