The Grapes of Wrath
A Capitalistic Market Structure Analysis
John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath tells the tale of a family of
sharecroppers beset by economic hardships stemming from an industries shift
from manual to mechanized labor. As this novel was published in 1939 during the
United States Great Depression and predicted that the unyielding hand of
capitalism would propagate an un-maintainable division of classes and would
eventually lead to a revolution, many regarded it as a call to Socialism. In
truth while this may not be aÂ
formal call to Socialism as many at the time claimed, it
definitively illustrates the negative effects of every Capitalistic Model. Steinbecks’ overview of Pure Competition, Monopolistic
Capitalism, Oligopoly, Monopoly, and Monopsony
articulately illustrate the inherent problems with each market and his concerns
for the future of the world through the eyes of the common man.
