The reading is going well, although it adapts the same setting from "Of Mice and Men" and this worries me that the characters and variety of the storyline will not deter to much from Steinbecks earlier work. although this storyline alternates between many different characters, as opposed to the two main character setup from "Of Mice and Men" I am expecting more from the storyline. I hope the focus and theme of the novel change from being just about the great depression, and have more of a focus on the characters and their plights, and not just the conflicts arising from the depression.

From my research I learned that mechanization coincided with over farming, and dismissal of crop rotation caused the dust bowl. I also found a photographer named Dorothea Lange who traveled with many people during the westward migration to california, and helped document the depression. She took the famous photograph "Migrant Mother." It is worth looking at her work to get a good idea of the setting of "Grapes of Wrath."