In Dubious Battle

The best book by Steinbeck. Gritty down in the dirt daily lives of workers. In today's world people forget that it was the Communists who fought and won many benifits workers enjoy now.

"In Dubious Battle" is basically the first of Steinbeck's socially-engaged novels, in which he portrays a strike staged by itinerant fruit-pickers against price-cutting orchard owners. This is hardly a pamphlet for the labor movement or the Communist Party, though, as Steinbeck is less interested in pontificating than showing the frustations of the workers and the toll that their resistence actually takes on them and the local community. It also shows the organizational difficulties involved in getting a diverse group of dissatisfied workers to work for a common cause. The characterization is vivid and brilliant. Aside from its obvious literary value, this novel also has historical value, for like Sinclair's "The Jungle" (although with greater realism and much less pathos) it provides a powerful description of the plight of working people in America earlier in the 20th century. "In Dubious Battle" gives readers a good idea of the type of courage it took, and still does take, to fight for positive change and social justice.

Having just come out of a 49-day strike myself, I can say Steinbeck captures the logistics of a strike: the manipulation by the media against the strikers, the changes moods of the strikers, the importance of gathering public support. Steinbeck gives a balanced view of manipulators on both sides:the leaders of the strike and the employers. Jim Nolan, the protagonist,is lead by an over-zealous racical, Mac, into riling up disenfranchized apple pickers in a fictious town in California. Steinbeck's talent is in making you experience the strike in real-time, ugly warts and all. Although I felt the ending was harsh, Steinbeck gives the reader a lasting and haunting image of the kinds of sacrafices that were made to fight for the rights of working stiffs. I was most impressed by the vivid characters, an economy and dimension of a Doesteovski novel, as well as an ability to capture scene. I wanted to see more of the aftermath of the strike, but Steinbeck ends the novel like a kick in the gut. Almost too abrupt for my taste, but, alas, this is a classic and well worth the time of anyone wanting to better understand the dubious nature of a strike--its work never finished in a single lifetime.

By far, Steinbeck had his finest moments writing this story. That says a lot about a man who did such great character studies as Of Mice And Men, The Grapes Of Wrath, The Winter Of Our Discontent, and The Pearl. In this story, Steinbeck hits a raw note rarely reached in American Literature. Few people would have it in them to write a story about the "Reds" in the 1930s. Steinbeck not only wrote the story, he made it his masterpiece. The story alone is the best he ever published. A story about a migrant worker strike in California and the effects of an ununionized strike unfold in the novel. The more important part of the novel is the humanist views Steinbeck took. Every man can feel the hate of the system tearing you apart. He captures that hate in all 300 pages of this story. In every aspect, he captured people who have been pushed too far in In Dubious Battle. He told the story of men who had nothing to lose and in the end lost anyway. This is not another story of the underdog. This is the story of the American Dream being left unfulfilled.

Steinbeck masters several different purposes with this book. First, he provides us with, in typical Steinbeck fashion, an in-depth character study of several figures worthy of discussion. The characters are intriguing, life-like and hold our attention as they move through their existence.Second, he weaves a picturesque and spellbinding story with this ability to animate scenes with his words. He truly captures the idea of "suspension of disbelief;" the reader has no doubt he/she is reading about real places and people.Last and most important, Steinbeck turns the tables on the reader in the last paragraph of the book. While this book may superficially appear to be a scathing commentary on the ruthlessness of unchecked capitalism, its really a singular question on human nature, regardless of the dominant socio-economic system, be it capitalism or communism. The reader must make up his/her mind at the end on which is the worse crime: exploitation of the masses for profit or exploitation of the masses for personal power and position, especially at the expense of a friend and allie.One of the most powerful books I have read in such a few number of pages.