The Grapes of Wrath
What are the three “facts” that forebode an ominous future for the landowners?
Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Steinbeck traces what he sees to be the sorry history of California, fraught with slavery and oppression. Americans took the land from the Mexicans, put Asian workers into virtual slavery, and finally condemned the Okies who were forced to build shantytowns. Yet Steinbeck predicts that the conclusion of this history will be the overthrow of the capitalist owner class. He relies on Marxist-Leninist predictions that capitalist imperialism creates its demise through its own success. Eventually the accumulation of wealth in too few hands will deprive of the population to such a degree that they have no choice but to revolt. He also reiterates themes previously developed, such as the contempt for Okies from ordinary Californians and particularly authority figures such as the police.
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