The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck won a Nobel Peace Prize for Literature in 1968. The popularity of the book can be partly attributed to the fact that was considered extremely controversial at the time of its initial publication in 1939. While Steinbeck chronicled a fictional family, he did base the story on actual events. The Oklahoma Dustbowl and the mass flight of displaced farmers to the West, specifically California, was the backdrop of the novel's main characters, the Joads' , plight. John Steinbeck dramatized what he saw- the injustice - of man to fellow man, but within his writing he also incorporated the resiliency of the human spirit that is needed to survive. The drive to provide a better life for their children is motivation for the Joads to travel across the country to the promising land of California. …
