Materialism and Inhumanity in John steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and The Pearl

2 - AN ACQUISITIVE COMMUNITY

A - DEFINITION

Acquisitiveness is the eager desire to acquire and possess things, especially material possessions or ideas. In an acquisitive society, people crave for material success and seem never satisfied.

Acquisitiveness denotes the aspiration to get wealth or possessions beyond the needs of the people, especially when this accumulation of possession denies others legitimate needs. For example, amassing a large quantity of grapes or pearls is not considered an acquisitive act, unless in doing so, the needs of others are in danger. The fact of getting more is essential to the concept of Acquisitiveness.

One can see that the desire to increase one's wealth is nearly universal and acceptable in any society, but the simple desire is not considered like an acquisitive behavior. Acquisitiveness is the extreme form of this desire, particularly when one person wishes things simply for the sake of having great amount of money not to buy objects, but possessions as one can see through rich landowners' behaviors that focus only on the way to get money.

Acquisitiveness involves acquiring power and material property at the expense of other person's benefit. Thus, Acquisitiveness combined with selfishness is called excessive materialism.

From the above definition, one can notice that acquisitiveness is synonymous with materialism. Materialism can be defined as a conception that focuses only on material objects. The main concern of materialism is to gain profit no matter how. Thus, competition for material comfort, selfishness and brutality are the central elements that make up materialism.

For Steinbeck, a materialistic behavior is the fact of having excessive ambition of material success combined with the purpose to achieve it at all cost. This yearning is visible through the people of La-Paz village in The Pearl. One can also notice through The Grapes of Wrath that materialistic people center their attention on money mingled with self-seeking conducts. Thus, the two things constitute precisely the American materialism that Steinbeck describes through The Grapes of Wrath and The Pearl and which is also the cause of the transformation of the American society.

This money-oriented behavior starts gaining ground in the American society and goes so far as to change the mentality of people.

B - THE SOCIAL AND MORAL VALUES IN JEOPARDY

Modern writers, especially American writers like John Steinbeck are deeply concerned with their identity which is fragmented by the great depression experiences. They constantly resort to the thirties condition to question the assumption of the so-called American dream that has erased rich American people's moral values and motivate their greedy behavior. These writers suffer a sense of inadequacy and loss of moral values in their native lands, exactly during the thirties when it comes to showing their point of views in a society where extreme aspiration to material success is a priority. This is where the interest of materialism study lies. The rise of capitalism has also caused deep wound to the north and south Americans to such an extent that their social and cultural values are jeopardized on a large scale.

The rising capitalism in America is threatening for poor people. Thus, rich capitalists' aim is to implement political domination and economic exploitation over poor workers. They also seek to impose their economic system on the existing methods which are believed to be non-productive and risk destroying systematically their economy.

In this cruel economic policy of mechanization, poor farmers prove so powerless before rich property-owners that they are more likely to submit to rich landowners' financial system regarded as the most profitable one. Thus, in front of this insurmountable political and economic domination a defense against this agrarian system then becomes inevitable because it entails cruel scenes that provide almost no way out. That's the reason why in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the protagonist, Tom Joad, feels resentful towards this cruel desire for material achievement.

In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck makes bitter remarks on the condition of working class life during the thirties whose agrarian system was cruel and whose people suffered economically and socially. In Steinbeck' s The Pearl and The Grapes of Wrath, the protagonists feel depressed by the callousness of people either in California or in La-Paz village. Systematically, people refute their moral values and prefer espouse a heartless money-making behavior.

It is clear that prosperous people just like in The Grapes of Wrath as well as in The Pearl have an acquisitive lifestyle which always enters in conflict with the ethical values or needs. This is what drives us to query whether materialism reduces the well-being or if lack of well-being (or happiness) nourishes materialism or the two cases. Thus, one can notice through Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and The Pearl that several factors can explain the couple of questions which endangers the social and moral values in the American society.

In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck shows that people who have strong materialistic behaviors tend to be directed towards purposes which lead less to the well-being. This idea is taken as well by Tim Kasser in his novel, The High Price of Materialism^7(*). Tim Kasser presents researches which show when people organize their life around extrinsic goals like the acquisition of property, they both generate less satisfaction and more psychological problems in their relations. Thus, Kasser distinguishes on the one hand, the extrinsic goals, like possessions, status, and glory. And on the other hand, the intrinsic goals like the personal development and contact with the community which is satisfactory in oneself.

Similarly, Steinbeck shares the same point of view as Tim Kasser. For Steinbeck, materialistic people have often unrealistic expectations in comparison to what material success can bring to their relations, autonomy and happiness. Money-oriented people believe that acquire possessions can change their life in every sense. The people of La-Paz Village in The Pearl as well as the landowners in The Grapes of Wrath are illustrative examples. These people wish enviously to acquire any other profit in order to get better their living condition. This longing is unfortunately the source of hard insensitivity and brutality between people.

In the middle of the thirties, poor people started growing aware of this oppressive economic system. And now they strive to struggle for their political and economic independence by trying to adjust the economic policy so as to give the deprived community the chance to live in a decent way.

* ⁷ Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism, The MIT Press, First edition September 2002, Chap.2, p. 5- 6