Finding solace in Steinbeck during the time of Trump

November 11, 2016

grapes-of-wrath-2

OPINION by STEPHEN COOPER

In a jittery, newly authoritarian land of hatred and hurt, chastened criminal and social justice reformers and human rights advocates can find solace and sustenance in the words and works of the incomparable John Steinbeck, one of America’s greatest writers and psychoanalysts.

In his opus and Pulitzer Prize winning, The Grapes of Wrath, spotlighting exploitative and inhumane labor practices and living conditions of migrant agricultural workers during the Great Depression, Steinbeck masterfully wrote: “Failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow . . . . And the smell of rot fills the country . . . . There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success . . . . And, in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is the growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

In the dawning, gloomy, metastatic malignancy of a Trump presidency, do not Steinbeck’s hallowed words resonate every bit as much, if not terrifyingly more? Do they not poignantly describe the heartbreak and fear of so many?

The words and oeuvres of John Steinbeck are more relevant today than ever for compassionate, big-hearted folks. Folks who abhor racism, torture, oppression, and unequal justice under law, including: the discriminatory and dysfunctional use of the death penalty, excessive prison sentences, mass incarceration, the scourge of solitary confinement. And now, with the horrifying, looming prospect of an Attorney General Giuliani – back like the cackling, indefatigable evil “Emperor” from Star Wars – a return to despicably discriminatory policies like “stop and frisk,” and newer, more malevolent and unconstitutional-sounding ones, like “extreme vetting” and “deportation forces.”

In the introduction to the 2008 Penguin Books edition of Steinbeck’s “The Winter of Our Discontent,” a title pregnant with meaning when first released (but positively giving birth to twins now), Professor Susan Shillinglaw writes, Steinbeck “stood as America’s moral compass, pointing to Americans’ virtues and lapses.” For Steinbeck, “the freedom to critique one’s country, [which] he felt with increasing urgency, was the role of an artist in a free nation.”

Accepting the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature, Steinbeck struck a happier, lighter chord, saying, “the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit – for gallantry in defeat, courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation.”

In an interview for an NBC radio program recorded on April 16, 1939, Steinbeck also said: “The poor are still in the open. When they make a struggle it is an heroic struggle with starvation, death, or imprisonment the penalty if they lose. And since our race admires gallantry, the writer will deal with it where he finds it. He finds it in the struggling poor now.”

Lest we writers, advocates for peace, for grace, and for justice forget (many of us, regrettably, having not picked up a copy of The Grapes of Wrath, since being required, in school, at far too tender an age), Steinbeck was primarily awarded the Nobel Prize. Steinbeck is “a giant of American letters,” because of his unparalleled capacity to shine a searing spotlight, with captivating, credible, one-of-a-kind prose, on the suffering of the poor and the oppressed (epitomized in The Grapes of Wrath by the Joad family, and their harrowing cross-country migration from what Professor Shilllinglaw calls, “Oklahoma’s Dying Dustbowl to California’s corrupt Promised Land”).

In the introduction to Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, editor Robert DeMott, writes that Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath “intending to ‘rip’ each reader’s nerves ‘to rags’ by making him ‘participate in the actuality.’” It is here, I respectfully submit, that all good people of conscience can take instruction from the manna of Steinbeck’s moral wisdom as he “humanize[d] America’s downtrodden.”

We citizens who reject totalitarianism, who believe in freedom, equality, and happiness for all – not contrived, ill-conceived soundbites on hats – must do as Steinbeck did. We must, in our lifetime, in the most human, most piercing, most painstaking and revealing of ways, highlight the stories of the poor, the marginalized, the disenfranchised, and the vulnerable.

During the next four years (and God, help us, possibly the next eight), no fight for the soul, the resilience, and character of America will be more important.

Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 2015. He has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers in the United States and overseas. He writes full-time and lives in Woodland Hills, California.


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Oh please Pelican 1, spare us the hyperbole, drama queen.

The people who voted for Trump were middle class working people who finally had enough of being screwed over by the”elites”, such as the author of this opinion piece. Hell, even Michael Moore understands this.


If you think we are entering one of our “darkest periods” then I would suggest you go drink some Draino so your tender heart will be spared the “ugliness” that we are about endure…


Gordo says:” I would suggest you go drink some Draino” You first, speaking of hyperbole.


The people who voted for Trump were too stupid to see that they were empowering the “elites” to screw them even harder than they’re already getting it. There’s no government like no government, and Trump sure as hell is not going in that direction.


The thing that shocks people LIKE YOURSELF is that I mean what I say. I don’t use hyperbole.


…and the KKK is planning a parade to honor Trump. Give your head a shake America, you are treading dangerously close to entering one of your darkest periods in your short history.


You continue to spread the Lie. What all 200 of the KKK? You Progressive children at first whine about how Trump may not honor the results of the election and when you lose (after spending 2 Billion dollars, having a Criminal as a candidate, screwing the old Socialist dolt and best of all smearing Trump constantly with the media sycophants liars) act like this is the French Revolution and your defending us all against the mistake we just made because you minions are the caring ‘educated.’ I call BS and also call Astro Racism, so far the only thugs I’ve seen are beating on Trump supporters or rioting. Burn your own Democratic run slums down only this time the Feds wont help you re-build.


This opinion writer is from Woodland Hills. “Woodland Hills is an affluent neighborhood in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley which is located east of Calabasas and west of Tarzana.”


The median income is 93,000. He hides in his elitism and wants to tell others how to live in the real world.


Typical


You might need to revisit the definition of “elite”. In many California locations (unsure where you are), $93K is near poverty level. And what does the median income level of the author’s residence have to do with this opinion piece? I’m sure I could find a number of economic or social issues to stigmatize your comments with as well. Your point?


Better check your privilege. 93k is a fortune to all of the out-of-work or underemployed Americans. That’s the problem with the Ca union-type liberals. I’ve got mine, who cares about the rest of the US.


Kind of delusional thinking. The media have been promulgating race wars for the past 8 years and have intensified the Hate over the last 2. The media has brought out the left wingnuts to a near frenzy of Thought Control and we’re going to take away your freedom to choose how you believe. The Hate has intensified to the level where suicide is rampant, and heroin is used to kill the pain.


Don’t even try and steal the goodness and hardworking characters in this book. The link to the left cannot be made.


Let’s see. The nanny stater who wants to dictate what we buy, what we read and what we say and takes what we earn and gives it to those who didn’t earn it by force wants to talk about liberty and freedom?


A hypocritical fool at best.


‘In the dawning, gloomy, metastatic malignancy of a Trump presidency’. You’ve seen the FUTURE??! Wow! What app did you use? Do the grownups a favor and STFU now. We all see the present as a pretty dark place where people like you control the press and television and have had control of the government for years. Years during which things all went downhill. Over half of us are hopeful. It seems like the half who don’t need a ‘trigger warning’ or give a damn about ‘microagressions’ are the ones expressing the possibility that we may be saved from globalist oppression.

I counter you with what seems a more relevant literary quote; The nation is divided, half patriots and half traitors, and no man can tell which from which.


– Mark Twain


What ever happened to giving a person a chance? Our our choice wasn’t exactly perfect anda least he didn’t kill anyone.


Not yet anyway (that we know of)


Got no problem here with Trump, in fact I voted for him and wish him all the best.

We had to suffer obamas crap for the last 8 years, this is like a breath of fresh air.


While Steinbeck’s “hallowed words” might comfort the self-frightened regarding Trump, they also play quite well when reflecting on the fiasco that has been the last 8 years. Who is more criminal, Trump or Hillary? Who has had more “failure hanging over the state” (department)?


It goes both ways, but let’s be honest (something the left rarely is, I’ll admit), Trump not so much won, rather Hillary lost, and lost BIG. However, the tremendous loss cannot be solely attributed to Hillary’s incompetence, malfeasance, corruption and unlikability; no, the entire democrat machine has been hammering the public with fears of boogeymen and doom & gloom for so long, many have become numb to it.


When Trump can show up in Detroit with the apropos line of (paraphrasing), “You couldn’t drink the water in Mexico, and cars were made in Flint; now, your cars are made in Mexico, and you can’t drink the water in Flint!” – That resonates. Strongly.


Democrats can moan and groan and predict and analyze all day long, but at the end of the day, reality smacks all their theorizing around. For the vast majority of people, their healthcare became VERY expensive and VERY limited as to who they can see, etc. For many people, they are old enough to remember when cars were made here and the water in Mexico was undrinkable. Trump (and/or the republicans) did not have to propagandize people for 40 years for them to see this, either.


Trump’s biggest advantage was that none of the terrible policy decisions in the voter’s lifetime were attributable to him. Hillary claims she was “working hard” her whole life in politics. Well, guess what? People can see what that got them.


It all boiled down to: you know what you’ll get with Hillary, you are not sure what you’ll get with Trump. People chose to play Russian Roulette rather than just hang themselves. One thing is certain, the democrats are really good at renting mobs and causing violent dissent, through words, actions and influences.


“Russian Roulette” People chose to play Russian Roulette rather than just hang themselves.


OMG Impressive … I’m assuming you did that on purpose.