Analyse af John Steinbecks 'The Harvest Gypsies'

The Harvest Gypsies: Squatter's camp is the second article in the collection of seven newspaper articles John Steinbeck wrote for the San Francisco News in 1936. As what the 1930's represent, we are introduced to the miserable life of men during the Great Depression. A time where the market crashed and the beginning of great poverty, unemployment and small profits had its time. At the time the droughts and dust storms had a huge effect to the American People, especially the states like Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Panhandle were hard hit. That caused a huge among of emigrants flocking to California from the hardest hit states. A time were the loss of human dignity were on its highest.

As said earlier it is the second part of a collection that contains seven newspaper articles. Overall is the language very descriptive and easy to read. His own opinion as a writer is well hidden in the text, but in the begging Steinbeck says, "Let us see what a typical one is like…"(p.1l.5). Steinbeck use the pronoun “us” to connect the reader and the writer. We are lead by the writer to follow him, and he leads us to have a greater look at the gypsy’s lives, by his telling. We see his touch in the article in the beginning and as well again in the end “I have described three typical families. In some of the camps there are as many as three hundred families like these..”(p.6l12). When Steinbeck uses the personal pronoun “I” he make the text more reliable and personal.