Horatio Alger Jr.’s “Ragged Dick” and John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” are both novels that look at different parts of the American experience during different time periods. They tell stories about social struggle and financial hardship from opposing points of view in diverse locations, but they share those themes. In “The Grapes of Wrath,” which is set in California during the Great Depression, we follow the Joad family as they are forced off their farm by drought and foreclosure and travel west seeking work — only to find themselves exploited by big landowners, abandoned by industry, and condemned to poverty amid plenty. John Steinbeck’s book criticizes capitalism and its failure to fulfill the American Dream. He shows us what happens
