The Great Depression

The Great Depression was the worst financial disaster in American history. When the stock market crashed, the banks closed, and suddenly everyone was broke and out of work. John Steinbeck's novel and the film based on it chronicle the life of one family caught in this disaster.

The Joads lose their home as the Great Depression begins. Although they have been hard-working sharecroppers for years, the bank is forced to turn the land over to corporations in order to get out from under the debt caused by this disaster.

As with so many other families, the Joads are forced West to find work. When this film came out, the country was just coming out of the Depression, and they remembered it vividly. Viewers could easily relate to the Joads, and many had been in their same situation at one point or another.

Stops Along the Way