Which people today face similar problems to that of the Joad family in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath?

Question

Hi guys.

I have to write an essay about people today that face a similar predicament as that of the Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath.

However, I can't find any! I was wondering if anyone here could help me out.

The question reads:

find three articles from the newspaper or news magazine that have problems similar to those faced by the Joad family in the 1930s. type a three paragraph essay on each comparing/contrasting the issue. In addition, a test will be given during the first week of class.

Answer 1

Try looking into the lives of migrant farm workers. They move from state to state and crop to crop. The pay is low,the work is back breaking, and in many cases they are treated badly. Many times entire families; from the young to the old; work to make ends meet. Sunup to sunset and no 40 hour week;when its ripe you pick.
Search migrant farm workers 2007 it should find you a lot of the information you need

Answer 2

The obvious examples are migrant workers. Many people from Mexico or Central America flee the poverty and environmental degradation of their homeland to come to California and elsehwere seeking work and a better life. Like the Joads, they have left everything they know to come to a strange place. They face many hardships. And some of them do find a better life.

Answer 3

Migrant workers from Mexico and other countries used to have a similar life in California, but unionization of farmworkers has resulted in much better conditions.
You might look up the migrant workers IN Mexico now; they are dealing with similar problems. I am sure that similar conditions can be found in other countries as well. Through much of Latin America, people have had to leave their farms for one reason or another, and are set adrift with little education and no permanent home.

Answer 4

The Joads had to leave OK and go to California to get work, because lack of rain turned their fields in OK into dust....they had to work in other farmers fields in CA picking fruit,,,grapes especially...and potatoes etc...it was back breaking work and they got paid very little...they came in broke and the overseer would lend them money to buy food,,they were sometimes, furnished a one room shack..By the time payday came around,,,they owed everything they had to the company store or the overseer....then they would borrow again,,and start it all over....I think they are probably wanting to know about how the poor Mexicans who come here are doing....it is similar in some ways...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5401904