The story told by Grapes of Wrath is well known, though today probably few read the book and even fewer watch the movie. It is a tale of people fleeing the devastation of the Dust Bowl by heading to California. These immigrants became known as Okies (from "Oklahomans"), though actually most were not from Oklahoma. Nevertheless, the name stuck once the they got to California. The Okies were as welcome as Mexican immigrants are in some places in America today. Like the Mexican immigrants, they two were seeking opportunity. All they were looking for was work and the chance to earn an honest wage.

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…” These lines are from the book of Matthew in the Bible, but most in California in the 30’s did not believe that the Bible ever intended for these words to apply to Okies. Many feel the same way about Latino immigrants today.

The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl partly overlapped in time. Human greed was the cause of both of them. The Great Depression was caused by speculative greed on Wall Street and the too eager pursuit of easy money. When Wall Street went bust, however, those in the end hit hardest were innocents who had not participated in the whirlwind of stock speculation that brought the colapse.

The Dust Bowl was caused by misuse and mistreatment of the land in greedy pursuit of quick money from farming during a time of high prices. In the end the land took its revenge, just as some today say that our misuse and mistreatment of the planet will bring the planet’s revenge. Greed, in the end, usually has its reward …but history tells us, and John Steinbeck reminds us, that those who end up suffering the most are often the most innocent.