Kern County Board Of Supervisors example essay topic

Facts about the author: . John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. Salinas is known as the 'salad bowl of the nation'. Throughout his life, Steinbeck used Pegasus, a flying pig, to symbolize himself.

Some of his reasons for doing so - 'a lumbering soul but trying to fly' and 'not enough wingspread but plenty of intention'. Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath in 1940. In 1962, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Steinbeck was a war correspondent during World War II. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson presented John Steinbeck with a United States Medal of Freedom. The Grapes of Wrath is considered to be Steinbeck's finest work.

It was made into a movie with Henry Fonda playing Tom Joad Genre: Epic; realistic fiction Setting: The book starts off on the family's farm in Oklahoma and follows their path through America to California. Theme: WrathPageThe Joads stand as exemplary figures in their refusal to be broken by the circumstances that conspire against them. At every turn, Steinbeck seems intent on showing their dignity and honor; he emphasizes the importance of maintaining self-respect in order to survive spiritually. Nowhere is this more evident than at the end of the novel. The Joads have suffered incomparable losses: Noah, Connie and Tom have left the family; Rose of Sharon gives birth to a stillborn baby; the family possesses neither food nor promise of work.

Yet it is at this moment (Chapter Thirty) that the family manages to rise above hardship to perform an act of unsurpassed kindness and generosity for the starving man, showing that the Joads have not lost their sense of the value of human life. Criticism: In the 1993 State level competition in History Day in California Elis Palos received the prestigious Heilbronn Award given to the California Historical Society for this paper. In addition she was the C CHS second place winner in senior papers. At the time she was a junior at East Bakersfield High School. When John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, it caused an uproar in this nation. The inside cover of the novel states, 'It electrified an America still convalescing ideas that many people were, at the least, uncomfortable with this electricity caused the Kern County Board of Supervisors to ban the book in the county's public schools and libraries on August 22, 1939.

The Grapes of Wrath was mostly set in Kern County, California and illustrated the 'corporate landowners' cruelty towards the 'exploited agricultural workers. These agricultural workers Page were usually derogatorily called 'Okie,' because most of them had migrated from Oklahoma. Others came from Arkansas, Kansas, and New Mexico. After the years of drought in the area that became known as the Dust Bowl and after they were thrown off their land, these farmers moved to California to start a new life, hoping to own their land. However, their luck was not as large as their hope and many were left homeless and unemployed.

According to Steinbeck's novel, this was because the California landowners barely paid the workers enough to live on. Apparently, this offended some of Kern County's citizens, especially the Associated Farmers of Kern County. They completely supported the Board of Supervisors' resolution that stated the novel 'misrepresented conditions in the county and the whole San Joaquin Valley and blamed the local farmers for the plight of the indigent farmers. The group also solicited other organizations in the valley for support. W.B. Camp, a prominent rancher of the time and president of the Associated Farmers, said that his organization would 'fight to remove the 'smear' on the good name of Kern, the state of California and agriculture. Despite the denials of those who felt they were falsely portrayed by Steinbeck, there are those who were there that say it is true. When asked by Kathi Durham on March 9, 1981 if Steinbeck's portrayal of the treatment of the farm workers was accurate.

Eua 1 Murmduke Stone said, 'Oh, they treated them like dogs, they was treated like dogs. They only wanted them to get their crops picked. ' Stone could be considered an 'Okie,' since he moved from Oklahoma to California in 1929. Also, Mary De Armond, a Bakersfield High and East Bakersfield High School teacher from 1938 to 1943, stated.

'It (The Grapes of Wrath) was all true. Page Even though the Associated Farmers and the Board of Supervisors couldn't get the unfair and untrue rap to stick, they tried to convince the county they were banning The Grapes of Wrath because of the book's obscenity. W.B. Camp explained. 'We are angry, not because we were attacked but because we were attacked by a book obscene in the extreme sense of the word... ' Kern County supervisor Stanley Abel defended the board by saying on August 28, 1939, 'The book was banned because of the filth that is in it.

True, there were 'dirty words' throughout the book, as most people would call them today but the characters in this novel were not exactly the most refined and educated. Besides, didn't the board's resolution banning the book state that it misrepresented conditions in the county? Which one was the true, motivating reason'? Whether or not the book stated untruths or was obscene, there were many Kern County residents who believed the ban was a threat to the first amendment, including organizations like the National Council of Freedom from Censorship and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Raymond W. Henderson, representative of the Kern County branch of the ACLU, did not believe The Grapes of Wrath should be given to school children and that the ACLU wasn't interested in the truth of the book, but said, 'What we do protest is a public board setting itself up as a board of censorship in violation of the first amendment of the federal Constitution. (l 2) Vernon Bell, a Kern County resident during the ban, declared when asked about The Grapes of Wrath, 'Censorship is a threat to our way of American life. (l 3) Finally, after a year and a half, the Kern County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to cancel the ban in January of 1941. (14) However, the book wasn't allowed to be used in the Kern High School District until 1972, when Bell requested to teach it to his classes at East Bakersfield Page High School. (l 5) Now it is taught every year.

Hopefully, Kern County students and others will now understand what it was like to truthfully be an 'Okie' in California, despite the once strong protests of the landowners. Steinbeck did us all a great favor by communicating the truth. The Grapes of Wrath has come a long way in Kern County. It is now ironic to think what once left a bitter taste in California's mouth, became 'the most popular book in America. ' (l 6) Some critics call it '... the greatest fictional work of a generation. ' (l 7) It just goes to show, censorship can't stop an 'electrifying' novel. Character list: Tom Joad: A recent parolee in his mid-twenties. Ma and Pa Joad: A strong, middle-aged Oklahoma couple.

Noah Joad: Tom's older brother. Al Joad: Tom's younger brother who is sixteen-years old. Rose of Sharon: Tom's younger sister who was recently married and is pregnant. Granma and Grampa Joad: An old couple who have hard time adjusting to any changes.

Jim Case: A preacher and, later, a labor agitator. Muley Graves: A neighbor of the Joad's in Oklahoma. The Wainwrights: A family that shares the box-cart with the Joad's while they are cotton-picking.