Third discussion question for Grapes of Wrath

The universal theme of Grapes of Wrath is how even though everyone shares the same homo sapiens DNA, not everyone is treated the same. The Okie migrant farmer lower class people (whoa, that was three labels for these people strategically placed so they can be adjectives describing the farmers and I can cover all the stages of the decline of the lower class people) cannot get out of poverty because the rich upper class continues to keep their land and profits to themselves and keep wages below a livable standard. Those inhumane acts caused the death of many starved men, women, and children across the West.

The salesmen operated their business with a firm grip of mercilessness and constantly cheated the poor, poverty stricken people who can barely even afford the honest original price (Steinbeck 61). I understand that they also have a family to feed, but the salesmen already have a steady job and a roof above their families head. These displaced people don't have either one. The salesmen could cut them some slack instead of "screwing" (Steinbeck 121) them over, if you pardon the language. Instead of selling overpriced bread and meat (Steinbeck 374) and replacing the newer car batteries with old ones after a car has been bought (Steinbeck 62), the salesmen could raise the price a little (they have to feed their family too) but give the people what they paid for, not some cheap imitation of something that is doubled in price.

The land owners (and in the hierarchy of things the uncompassionate and unsympathetic banks for imposing this on the land owners) also are very unkind toward the poverty class people. They are making enough profit as it is to spare a penny or a nickel to raise wages. Their "employees" (I don't really think they count as employees because they work for a short amount of time without benefits [maybe a camp is provided, but other than that, free peaches!] and move on when the work is done) are starving and dying because they are not making enough money to buy food for their equally starving family. If the land owners would raise the wages then people won't starve and the land owners could still make a profit.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.