Word of the Day
Okie (OH-kee)
Common clue: The "Grapes of Wrath" character; Dust bowl refugee
Definition: An offensive term for a migrant farm laborer, especially one from Oklahoma in the 1930s.
The
Grapes of Wrath book cover
The Grapes of Wrath is a work of fiction published by John Steinbeck in 1939 (March 14th), in which descriptive, narrative, and philosophical passages succeed one another. Set in the Great Depression, this popular proletarian novel tells the story of migrant workers (or sharecroppers) leaving the Dust Bowl, and moving on. He follows the Joad family, 'Okie' farmers driven from their land by drought and forced to endure the hardships of life as agricultural workers. En route to California the grandparents die; on their arrival the surviving members of the family are involved in strikes that turn violent, and Tom, the son, kills a man. At the conclusion of the novel the family shows resoluteness in the face of defeat.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Grapes of Wrath".
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