How does this book corolate with the struggles of Americans during the time period of the depression???

It is difficult to separate the exodus of poor farm families from western Oklahoma from the dire straits of the Great Depression. The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement. Over cultivation after WW1 combined with massive draught caused farms to go under. The greater depression meant there was no money to lend to farmers who could not possibly begin to pay it back. It was the perfect storm. Although not as grave as the plight of migrant farm workers like the Joads, Americans in general were in a bad way. This is why farm workers were met with such hostility in the towns they travelled through. People generally looked after their own interests first. Migrants got jobs nobody else wanted. In a depression that meant picking fruit for 5 cents a crate. Had there not been a depression the "Oakies" might have fared a little better. Steinbeck, however ,was making a comment on the human spirit as much as the effects of economic collapse.