Great+Big+Sperit+Reflection

The spirit of community is a main focus in Steinbeck's writing, and one that I also see as being an integral part of the American character. Instead of just concentrating on the experience of migrant workers during the nineteen-thirties, I decided to take a chronological perspective and focus on other periods when the rights of migrant workers were a struggle. By pairing pictures with quotes from the //Grapes of Wrath//, the visitor sees the contemporary relation between Steinbeck and civil rights struggles. We as Americans often like to put issues of civil rights and discrimination behind us, but in this exhibit I try to point out that much of what Steinbeck is writing about is still commonplace. There are still banks and corporations today, and they are by no means significantly less greedy and monstrous as they once were. Not only did Cesar Chavez experience the same struggles as the Joads in the sixties, but also the workers of Immokalee, Florida who are paid slave wages to pick tomatoes for Burger King. Like the Joads, these migrant workers, overwhelmingly from Latin America, are treated inhumanely and are intimidated by their employers. Burger King is the "monster" that Steinbeck speaks of, and labor rights are by no means a dead issue.

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