Summary:
In his novel In Dubious Battle, John Steinbeck portrays two labor leaders who try to rally apple pickers to strike against their grower's association in a positive light. This depiction has led many to perceive Steinbeck as a communist and to criticize him for this work, even though his actual political beliefs were unknown.
Capitalist-Communist Clash
Even though John Steinbeck was very patriotic, many perceived him as a communist. This was because in his book, In Dubious Battle, he portrays two men, Mac and Jim, who are Reds. He seems to favor them throughout the book as they try to rally apple pickers to strike against the their Grower's Association. While Steinbeck's political beliefs are unknown by many, his depiction of Mac and Jim's attempt to organize the men has caused some of his readers to confuse the author's beliefs with those of his character's.
Mac and Jim came to The Torgas Valley hoping to rally the men to strike. Mac stressed to Jim that he needed to keep his eyes peeled for opportunities to gain the worker's trust. Soon, they learned of a young woman giving birth, and they recognized it as the perfect chance. Mac and Jim used their skills to unite the men into a common cause. To begin, they went into the tent to help deliver the woman's child. Mac took charge, giving instructions to the men who were present. "Now first we have to have water boiling. When it's boiling, we need to get white cloth in it.. Get a big fire going, and get a couple big kettles." (93) This was very significant and hugely important in helping Mac and Jim promote their cause, laying the foundation for Mac's master plan. Through this experience of helping the women giving birth, the men learned they could work as a team. Next, Mac made them feel like a part of the delivery and the child's life by making them think they were the reasons the baby was alive. After the delivery, much of the white cloth was still unused. But instead of returning it, Mac ordered it to be burned, saying, "Every man who gave part of his clothes felt that the work was his own. They all feel responsible for that baby." (95) Mac's plan to burn the left over cloth was ingenious. If he gave back the unused cloth, many of the men would have felt they were not needed and not a part of the group. Mac used his skills to form a group of men who all respected him and he planted the seeds for them to believe in him and his cause. Because he delivered the child, he had a lot of pull with the men, and most importantly their leader, London, the girl's father-in-law.
Mac and Jim use old Dan's fall to cause an uproar throughout the orchard. To begin with, Mac used the fact that the ladder broke as evidence of the faulty equipment the men were provided with. The rung of the ladder that Dan stood on had broken because it was rotten. This caused a man to say, "The ladder, an old ladder!" (106) Mac hits that point hard by telling the men that they deserve better equipment and that they should not risk their lives everyday with faulty equipment when they are getting paid such absurdly low wages. This makes an impression on the men. Seeing that the equipment was so bad for how little they were paid, they decided they should demand better. Another way that Mac and Jim use old Dan to their advantage to cause a stir at the orchard was to project his image to the younger men as a glimpse of their own inevitable future. The young men began to see that if they continued to accept this treatment they would become what old Dan was: an old man who is forced to keep working because he could not afford to retire. At fifteen cents per day, the men barely had enough to live, let alone save for retirement. That thought awakens fear in the men and creates a feeling of urgency. Suddenly, they realize that they need to take action to avoid ending up like old Dan. Taking advantage of this small uproar, Mac yells, "Boys, we ought to hold a meeting... I move London for chairman." (109) Mac ingeniously uses Dan's fall to ignite his movement by getting the men to come to a meeting where they discussed the possibility of a strike and elected a leader.
Finally, Mac uses another turn of events to his advantage by rallying the men after Jim's death. Even though Mac did not want Jim to die, he knew that it had to happen in order for the strike to survive. Jim's death is foreshadowed by Steinbeck when a candle in Jim's bedroom begins to flicker. "The candle at his bedside began flickering to darkness... Jim quickly turned to it and relit it." (122) This is important because Jim's death was needed for the book's completion. The strike was slowly 'flickering' or dying out, and Mac realized that something enormous had to happen for the apple pickers to have any chance of winning the battle between morals and money. Jim's death was that something. Mac used it to get the men very angry, and to revive their desire to strike and to win. Even though at the conclusion of this book, the reader does not know the work stoppage's result, the reader does know that the men are burning with renewed fire. The reader is left with the idea that the men will keep trying at all cost to win the strike.
Mac uses his abilities to persuade many times throughout the book. Taking advantage of London's daughter-in-law's child birth, old Dan's fall, and Jim's death to gain the men's trust and rally them to action. Even though Steinbeck was highly criticized by some for this work, to many others its words will never be lost, and he is a hero whose political stance would never be questioned.
Work Cited
Steinbeck, John. In Dubious Battle. New York: Penguin Books USA
This is the complete article, containing 966 words
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