How John Steinbeck Promotes Agonistic and Secular Humanism - Essay Example

The wages are pulled down and many go unemployed.  Those who are lucky enough to be hired are exploited thoroughly. Although the novel is an indictment against the fallacy of capitalist utopia, it does not gravitate toward a Marxist position.  To the extent that Steinbeck accepts bitter realities of life in the United States without resorting to political and economic ideologies is evidence for the agonist in the author.  Moreover, by showcasing virtue and resilience in the face of adversity, Steinbeck hints at poverty's noble connotations, which resonates with the message of the Holy Bible. 

Strengthening the case for the novel's biblical inspirations, the name of one of the Joad family members is Rose of Sharon.  But it would be simplistic to classify The Grapes of Wrath as a Christian novel, for it deals with universal human concerns and universal avenues for salvation.  Steinbeck makes it clear that such salvation is not an event in the afterlife, but one accessible during the course of life itself.  In the last scene of the story, where Rose of Sharon, upon seeing the miserable starvation of an old man, offers him her breast milk (which her stillborn baby could not have).  This act epitomizes the secular humanistic basis of the novel.