Corruption and greed often lie at the heart of American Literature (30 marks)
Throughout both F Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of
Wrath”, both corruption and greed are prevalent, and the reader understands that they are both
significant problems in 1920s and 1930s America. In the ‘roaring 20s’ and Prohibition era of “The
Great Gatsby”, we see through the character of Jay Gatsby, that corruption and greed are closely
linked to the acquisition of wealth, but also the pursuit of the American dream. This is similar to
Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”, though as this novel is set during The Great Depression, it is
clear that the novel is much more of a call to action against corruption and greed than “The Great
Gatsby”.
In Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”, a key result of greed, though also of corruption, is the
displacement of people. At the beginning of the novel, the truck driver explains that the “croppers
going fast now… one cat takes and shoves ten families out”, and later we learn that “one man on a
tractor can take the place of twelve or fourteen families”. This removal of families from their homes
and their farms was a significant impact of greed and corruption in 1930s America – the big
landowners, the banks in this novel, recognised that they could make more money using new
technologies, so they ruthlessly displaced tenant farmers by bulldozing their homes and effectively
forcing them out. Critic Louis Owens argued that the Joads, representative of a large number of
families who were forced out of their homes in this way, are “clearly part of a system that has
failed”. The “system” that Owens’ discusses, is clearly one based on greed – the only reason that
families are forced off the land in the first place is because the landowners, the banks, want to make
more money. Thus, Steinbeck is clearly presenting the idea that greed and corruption do lie at the
heart of American Literature, and that they have a devastating impact for struggling families such as
the Joads. However, something that is significant about the displacement of the Joads is the cyclical
nature of this displacement – in chapter 5, we learn that “Grampa took the land, and he had to kill
the Indians for it”. Through this, Steinbeck is perhaps suggesting that greed, for land and for wealth,
is not just a key issue now, but has been for centuries, because perhaps the only way to achieve
success, or even survival, is greed. Thus, greed does clearly lie at the heart of American Literature,
much in the way that it lies at the heart of American society.
The idea that greed lies at the heart of American society is not just prevalent in “The Grapes of
Wrath”, but it is clear also in “The Great Gatsby”, that the acquisition of wealth and the pursuit of
the American Dream are very closely linked to corruption and greed. For example, the era in which
“The Great Gatsby” is set is an era of Prohibition, meaning that there was a ban on the sale and
import of alcohol. Despite this, we learn that Gatsby has made his wealth from alcohol – in chapter
7, Tom explains that Gatsby “sold grain alcohol over the counter”. Thus, we can see that Gatsby’s
whole life is based on corruption as his wealth has been achieved by corrupt means. Although
bootlegging was a fairly well-known career in the 1920s Prohibition era, it was still corrupt, and it
caused a boom in organised crime. However, although Gatsby is clearly corrupt, his greed is more
justifiable than that of the greed of the banks in “The Grapes of Wrath”. Although he clearly wants to
show off his wealth, it is all done in his pursuit for Daisy – we even learn that “Gatsby bought that
house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”. So, whereas the tenant farmers in “The Grapes of
Wrath” are forced out of their homes completely unjustifiably due to the greed of the banks, Gatsby
clearly only pursues this corrupt acquisition of wealth for Daisy, who we see is the pinnacle of his
American Dream. Fitzgerald therefore is perhaps presenting the idea that it is this pursuit of the
American Dream that is flawed, as it often forces people into corruption and greed, as we see
through Gatsby. Yet therefore perhaps both Steinbeck and Fitzgerald are suggesting that it is the
way that American society is constructed – the hunger for wealth and for success (symbolised in the
American Dream) – which ultimately means that corruption and greed form such a part of this
society, which is perhaps why they do seem to lie at the heart of American literature.
