The Grapes of Wrath and Taabo Cote d’Ivoire
May 20, 2002
Here I thought I was living a unique and interesting experience... I just read "The Grapes of Wrath" and found out it’s not true. Much of what I experience here is the same stuff (maybe with a different twist) that Steinbeck wrote about in the transient farm laborer population in the 1920s and 1930s. For example:
 | Gender roles more traditional |
| Families more violent – men beating their wives, parents beating their children, pets being beaten on by everyone |
| Children seen but not heard |
| Vegetables and fruits available and eaten in season only |
| Agrarian society, little manufacturing or value-added work |
| Phones, electricity, and indoor plumbing rare |
| Walking long distances as part of every day life |
| Using everything until it cannot be used any further (no "throw-away society") |
| Babies delivered at home |
| Going to the market every day (no refrigerators) |
| Meat, eggs, and milk as luxuries rather than every day items |
| Laundry and bathing done in a tub |
| Mother, servants, or others at home working all day on cooking, cleaning, and laundry (more time intensive than today) |
| No safety net from the government; the safety net was social or familial instead |
| Owning very little clothing – one special set of "Sunday clothes" and perhaps only one or two everyday outfits |
So, my bubble is burst. My grandmothers have already lived through what I am experiencing today!!
Another author who may be helpful for understanding what this is like is Waris Dirie. Dirie is a model from East Africa who has written about her experiences growing up as part of a nomadic family in the desert. Much of what she describes is similar to what I experience here.