The Relevance of John Steinbeck: A West African Prespective

Abstract

John Steinbeck remains a very popular novelist in West Africa . His novels represent not only an American version of social protest that has now vanished with the twentieth century, but also an authentic portrayal of social truth that resonates profoundly with twenty-first century West Africa. Not surprisingly, The Grapes of Wrath has achieved the greatest fame for Steinbeck in this region of the world because its thematic preoccupations, scenes, and characters are very relevant and immediate to its readers. The hot, dry Oklahoma summer, the knocking down of the Joads' house, the heartlessness of the bank in forcing everyone unable to pay their bills to leave the land, the exploitation of the workers and tenants by corporations undergoing industrialization and mechanization, and the inability of workers to persuade the owners of the land to let them stay till they can perhaps relocateall these events and situations reflect the difficulties and stifling atmosphere facing twenty-first century West African migrant groups. The hasty impulsiveness of the Joads in deciding at night to get on the road before dawnand drugging Grampa with a bottle of soothin' sirup because he was reluctant to migratemirrors the rashness of West African migrants who move out of their home countries with meager resources and little preparation for their journey. They are driven, like the Joads, by a desperation that is political as well as economic, for some West African countries in the twenty-first century are still characterized by bad governance, dictatorship, and a despotism characterized by heartless mismanagement of God-given resources and total insensitivity to glaring poverty, suffering, and hardship. Dissident