Book Report on “In Dubious Battle”

Introduction

The book, “In Dubious Battle” by John Steinbeck was written and published in the year 1936. It was later reprinted in 1990. Earlier on, Steinbeck had indicated that he wanted to write down an autobiography of the life of a communist and the war that goes on between a man and himself. Well, he couldn’t have placed it at a better location other than the book which looks at the lives and strike of fruit-workers. The workers who actually pick fruits for sale in California were involved in a strike. Steinbeck works well to mix politics and the agricultural strike by introducing communists. The latter are used as perpetrators of the strike as they control the organization and provision of the strike. Where does it all begin? In his own words, he states that a complete agricultural revolution has taken place in California. This is the core point.

It took a maximum amount of 60 years for California to adopt the growth and sale of fruits and vegetables before which hay and cattle were the main profitable supplements. The agricultural revolution was spearheaded by the change in farming methods and labor applied. Steinbeck compares the introduction of truck gardens to the raising of livestock and growing hay. The former has a higher yield in terms of acreage than the latter but it statistically requires more labor. Moreover, more equipment is required by the laborers to sustain the harvesting and preparation of the yield. The crops from truck gardens are seasonal thus “migratory workers” handled them (Steinbeck, 52). These workers promoted agricultural development and added immense pressure on land.

Farming Development

Farming in California took a major turn with the pressure from truck gardening and investors started owning huge tracts (large-scale) farms. Farmers with small-farms also began increasing their acreage and as at then farmers owning 100-300 acres of land had their farming eliminated. Yes indeed, the poor farmers who had no part in the growing “development.” Anyway, two groups are now found in California (Wilson, 37). The groups are as different as night and day especially when living standards, necessities, likes/wants are considered. As is considered, these farmers will most definitely side the striking workers based on the development that has been described above. However, there is the other side of the story.

Steinbeck does mention a few rich men (owners of huge sections of land) who as expected opted to side with the rich hefty individual growers. The rich men include, “Mr. Chandlier- a publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Hoover and Mr. Hearst- absentee owners” (Steinbeck, 118). He uses “absentee owners” to describe the rich men, who although have the big farms, they (the farms) are controlled by “stockholders and farmed by instructed managers” (Steinbeck, 118). Banks such as the Bank of California owns and operates huge tracts of land at the moment as a result of bank-dictated labor policy such as foreclosure. This policy allows superintendents to carry out the farm operation.

The involvement of huge mechanization and the banking system to support farming and agriculture in California does spark the agricultural revolution in the land. It must be realized that the expansion of land needed an expansion of the workforce and mechanization. It is possible that most farms in the area were still rooted in raising cattle and growing hay but as earlier on indicated fruit growing had the lions share. With this light, it is important to look at the agricultural revolution not from the crops but from the workers (migrants) and political point of view. Remembering that the social-political influence is the engine of any development in this dark world, the story now begins to unfold. Erkman explains how Steinbeck uses the setting of the story, the characters, and the entire plot to explain the dark side of the agricultural revolution in California (Erkman, 23).

Communism Involvement

Jim and Mac-who are the main characters in Steinbeck’s book, are agents of a Communist party referred to as Reds. Steinbeck adds a fictional valley called Torgas in California, where the agents meet the helpless workers. They work in huge tracts of land with apple orchards where the rich dubiously exploit their hard work. The workers explain to the agents how their employers had announced a huge pay cut upon the workers’ arrival to the orchards. Amazingly, the workers had no option but to continue with their work as they had no money to return home. The migrant worker had sold everything to arrive at the “land of promise.”

The agents at this point call for the organization of the workers into a solid union. Under this umbrella (legal and acceptable by the American constitution), they will be able to strike and demand a pay rise without any of them being harassed or fired. At this point, Erkman notes the “influence of socialist thought and the Communist Party of The United States of America (CPUSA).” This thought not only shows the state of the workers in the 1930s but it shows how unionization was a vital plan of socialism. Erkman like any other American would be quick to term Steinbeck as one who spread propaganda (Erkman, 36). That would be true because America is a Capitalistic country. Nevertheless, a good look at the Great Depression and its effects would clear the air.

Disproportioning of huge amounts of wealth occurred during the Great Depression in America. Working-class Americans under the capitalist banner opted to follow the propaganda entailed with the socialists at that time as the finances took a drastic plunge. First of all, both the working and non-working class had difficulty in attaining food. This, of course, affects agriculture and the subsequent revolution. However, Erkman explains that the workers had to sustain on economical foods. They included: “stews, beans, mashed potatoes and black coffee.” The situation indeed in the 1920s-1930s was terrible. One major effect of the Great Depression was hunger. This was what had initiated the strike at the Torgas Valley (Erkman, 41). However, the workers were not yet free from exploitation.

The communist agents and their party in the city wanted to manipulate the workers to gain ground in America through unionization. Keep in mind that most workers at that time were either in factories or in farmlands such as those in the apple orchards. For example, Mac tells Jim of a man named Dick or Decoy who “tells ladies of the working classes and we get cakes with pink frosting” (Steinbeck, 18). The communist party was out to benefit though it can be seen that they want to initiate the strike based on the workers’ plight. The capitalists (the rich landowners) had the goal of fattening their bellies by exploiting the workers with poor pay. Sylla looks at this event as one main point that was noticed in the Great Depression (Sylla, 74).

Crops in the Revolution

At this point, the agricultural revolution in California had indeed come to a terrible instance. As reported earlier, fruits (at the time) were a reserve of the rich/employers and the product though it had started on a high note was about to disappear. The “In Dubious Battle” gives a good background of the Great Depression. Sylla explains it from the point of manufacturing but the principle applies in agriculture. The “average output per worker increased 32% in manufacturing” while their “time average wages increased only 4%” (Sylla, 23). The overall wages registered a poor increase at the “rate of ¼ as fast as productivity increased.” This was the state of the economy at the time. The gap between the rich and the poor was exceedingly great and it truly became unstable. The state had also understood the war between the farmworkers and the rich landowners.

Steinbeck shows how the matter reached the courts when the communists’ led workers called for a pay rise of 25% per hour when the standard was only 20%. The county judge had the following words to say, “California agriculture demands that we create a peonage” (Steinbeck, 124). The use of peons or forced labor was the best way to describe “unorganized agricultural labor.” The rich landowners were seen to amass a lot of profit from agriculture showing that the revolution indeed had a remarkable boost in profit (especially in fruits-for the rich). However, most of the money was spent on buying “rifle ammunitions and tear gas.” The same response was seen in Kern County, where the rich Associated Farmers insisted on paying 75 cents per 100 pounds to cotton pickers instead of the required $1 for the first picking (Sarchett, 92).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the agricultural revolution in the United States (specifically California) was taking shape and many migrant workers as has been seen were based in orchards or cotton farms. The rich Association Farmers who took advantage of the Great Depression to offer pay cuts to workers owned the farms. The developments from keeping cattle and hay to maximizing on fruits and cotton and the banking system made agriculture easy. However, the developments increased competition where small-scale farmers were thrown out of their lands. This exploitation led to the call of CPUSA and the unionization of workers but it all had mixed agendas.

Works Cited

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"The Great Depression, Working-Class Strife, and the CPUSA: Understanding Propaganda in John Steinbeck's in Dubious Battle." Yahoo Contributor Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.

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March, F. T. In Dubious Battle and Other Recent Works of Fiction,", New York Times, February 2, 1936, p. BR7. Accessed on November 3, 2013. (1936) Web

Pressman, Richard S. Individualists or Collectivists: Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle and Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. Steinbeck Quarterly 25.03-04 (Summer/Fall 1992): 119-133. 1992. Web

Rose, Henry, A. Steinbeck and the Complexity of the Self in In Dubious Battle." Steinbeck Quarterly 9.01 (Winter): 15-19. 1976. Web

Sarchett, Barry W. In Dubious Battle: A Revaluation. Steinbeck Quarterly 13.03-04 (Summer/Fall 1980): 87-97. 1980. Web

Steinbeck, J. In Dubious Battle. Retrieved from <https://journal.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/download/8799/8239>. Accessed on November 3, 2013. (1936) Print

Wilson, Jerry W. In Dubious Battle: Engagement in Collectivity. Steinbeck Quarterly 13.01-02 (Winter/Spring ): 31-42. 1980.Web