The Dust Bowl Myth
The images of Dust Bowl America etched in our consciousness by film and story and song are unforgettable--and only part of the truth.
Of all the grim spectacles created by the Great Depression, none has won a stronger hold on the American imagination than the travails of the Dust Bowl migrants. Driven westward to California by drought, dust storms, and economic disaster, they entered the national mythology as symbols of American grit and determination in the face of adversity, and as symbolic victims, often invoked when modern social ills are addressed.
In the title song of his 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad, Bruce Springsteen enlisted the protagonist of John Steinbeck´s classic 1939 Dust Bowl novel, The Grapes of Wrath, in the contemporary struggles against homelessness and unemployment. Tom Joad and family also served the cause of social criticism in a 1990 stage production by the Chicago-based Steppenwolf Theater Company. "This story," said director Frank Galati, who adapted the novel for the stage, "comes back to us from a dark time to invite us to reflect on what we really value."