The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath

“‘We couldn’t speak to one another because we were too tired,’ Collins remembered, ‘yet we worked together as cogs in an intricate piece of machinery.’” 

Although Steinbeck did not mention Collins directly in his articles, Collins was clearly essential to Steinbeck’s writing during this time period. Collins provided Steinbeck with information and access to the migrant workers who would feature directly in The Harvest Gypsies; the two went beyond the normal roles of reporter and source by assisting the migrants that they interviewed and traveling in close proximity for long periods of time.

“At this season of the year, when California’s great crops are coming into harvest, the heavy grapes, the prunes, the apples and lettuce and the rapidly maturing cotton, our highways swarm with the migrant workers, that shifting group of nomadic, poverty-stricken harvesters driven by hunger and the threat of hunger from crop to crop, from harvest to harvest, up and down the state […].”

Steinbeck used simple language and description to depict crisis conditions. Amidst the beauty of the agricultural harvest, desperate workers were toiling away. Steinbeck captured the contradiction between the lush bounty of crops and the starving workers who harvested them.

“Thus, in California, we find a curious attitude toward a group that makes our agriculture successful. The migrants are needed, and they are hated. Arriving in a district they find the dislike always meted out by the resident to the foreigner, the outlander.”

Xenophobia or fear of outsiders was a major issue at the heart of California’s growing economy. The agricultural sector needed migrant workers to keep its industry alive, but many Californians did not like these workers due to their race or foreign mannerisms—in the case of the immigrant workers from Latin America and Asia—or their appearance and supposed drain on resources—in the case of the white Okies. 

“It should be understood that with this new race the old methods of repression, of starvation wages, of jailing, beating and intimidation are not going to work; these are American people.”

Steinbeck clearly differentiated between the previous waves of foreign-born farmworkers from Asia and Latin America and the more recent white farmworkers who arrived in California in the 1930s. Although Steinbeck said that the large-scale growers had successfully exploited the foreign-born workers and suppressed their attempts to organize, he believed that the corporations would not be able to do the same to white Americans.

“For while California has been successful in its use of migrant labor, it is gradually building a human structure which will certainly change the State, and, may, if handled with the inhumanity and stupidity that have characterized the past, destroy the present system of agricultural economics.”

In this passage, Steinbeck’s pragmatism and foresight become evident. He believed not only that the cruel treatment of migrants was inhumane, but also that it would jeopardize the state’s economy. Migrants who were starving and despondent could not be as productive workers, and their anger would eventually give way to mass agitation that would disrupt the agricultural system.

“The spirit of this family is not quite broken, for the children, three of them, still have clothes, and the family possesses three old quilts and a soggy, lumpy mattress.”

Steinbeck highlighted migrant families’ destitution and their mentality, as they maintained their pride and took comfort in their few prized possessions. However, such possessions would not feed a child, and starvation remained a constant fear.

“Here in the faces of the husband and wife, you begin to see an expression you will notice on every face; not worry, but absolute terror of the starvation that crowds in against the borders of the camp.”

Steinbeck conveyed acutely the feeling of total starvation as a symbol of these migrants’ destitution. Steinbeck paid close attention to the migrants’ faces, as their weariness was apparent in their tired and fearful expressions. 

“It would almost seem that having built the repressive attitude toward the labor they need to survive, the directors were terrified of the things they have created.”

Here, Steinbeck discussed the reason behind the large-scale growers’ hatred of their workers: fear. They feared that their workers would revolt due to the low wages and poor working conditions, so they heavily policed them and suppressed them through intimidation tactics.

“A man herded about, surrounded by armed guards, starved and forced to live in filth loses his dignity.”

Expanding on the previous quote, Steinbeck highlighted the irony in how corporate agriculture’s repressive tactics only led to greater worker anger and a greater likelihood of revolt. More importantly, living in fear of armed guards and starvation would make a man desperate—it would strip him of his humanity and his dignity. When a worker lost his dignity, it was a tragedy, because he would lose his desire to be a happy, productive member of society.

“‘If it’s work you got to do, mister, we’ll do it. Our folks never did take charity and this family ain’t taking it now.’” 

One of the migrant workers Steinbeck interviewed spoke firmly of a desire to work hard and not take aid from anyone if he could help it. Steinbeck inserted this quote to counter negative perceptions of migrants in California—such as stereotypes that they were a financial drain on taxpayer resources—and bolster his idea of self-help for migrants.

“Any action to better the condition of the migrants will be considered radical to them.” 

The large-scale growers opposed any movement to improve working conditions on their ranches by saying that these workers were radicals who wanted to strike. Steinbeck challenged this idea, stating that the big growers depended on the total subjugation of the workers, and so they would hotly contest even the slightest efforts to improve the lives of their employees. 

“‘Seemed for a long time like he was gonna live. Big strong fella it seemed like […] If we could get milk for um I guess it’d be better.’”

In this passage, migrant mother who lost many children—either in childbirth or shortly afterward—described one of her children who died a few months after birth. From the words used, the mother’s tone seems resigned. She wished she could have gotten milk for her child, but that wasn’t possible. 

“‘We do not understand why approximately 80 officers found it necessary to gas an audience of several hundred men and women and children in a comparatively small one-story building while searching for three ‘agitators.’’” 

Steinbeck cited a passage from a report to the National Labor Relations Board; this report noted details of the treatment Mexican farmworkers at the hands of their employers. These intimidation tactics were put in place to stamp out any possibility of organized revolt, but the report indicates that the methods used were needlessly brutal.