Class struggle in in dubious battle (1936) by John Steinbeck and Devil on the cross (1982) by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

II Class divisions

1. Confrontation between the working and the dominant classes

Throughout Ngugi's novel, it is noticeable that the Kenyan society is made of layers and each layer is typified by characters. In Devil on the Cross, the realistic inclusion of real life in the fictional world of novel has a symbolic significance. The setting in the novel creates a pervasive symbol of Mwaura's matatu and the status and condition of passengers travelling in it with different personalities in a symbolic assessment of the Kenyan society with all kinds of social things in the country as it is described in the novel:

«The engine moaned and screamed like several hundred

dented axes being ground simultaneously. The car's body

shook like a reed in the wind .the whole vehicle waddles

along the road like a duck up a mountain.» (DOC, 54)

The matatu stands for the Kenya with its state of decay and destruction in which lives a profoundly divided and stratified society with leaders as corrupt as the driver himself.

The integration of two styles in Devil on the Cross has demanded that the heroic figures in the more realistic parts of the story shall be much closer to stereotypes that the protagonists of Ngugi`s earlier novels. This tendency has been encouraged by authors' wish to present clear-cut contrasts between social classes. In Devil on the Cross, each class is typified by certain characters.

A closer reading of both novels under study enables one to notice the gap existing between the antagonistic and conflicting classes extends as far as to the geographical occupation.

In In Dubious Battle, the fruit-pickers are the underdogs who are condemned forever and ever to loiter around in order to get better wages as a means of sustenance. Conscious of that situation, the landowners maintain their utter domination upon them so that they keep that tie of servitude and bondage between them and the workers. In In Dubious Battle it is as if there were two antagonistic worlds that are poles apart. One world where there is utter poverty and destitution, a world where the worker sleeps out in the open because of lack of decent houses and another world that is that of the beautiful city reserved for the top-ranking class, a place where it is very easy for a worker to be accused of vagrancy as illustrated by the character of Wangari in Devil on the Cross. The sights belong to the high class and it is the only one which is entitled to rejoice in them. Of course the justice is siding with the top-ranking class that brings more misfortune on the workers. The same situation can be seen through Nditika's words when he says:

«My children learn horses. They learn to ride at the Nairobi high-class riding school, previously owned by Grogan and Delamere». (DOC, 177)

As Ngugi has pointed out in his book there are two classes, the clan of the producers and the clan of the parasites. The latter feed itself on the sweat and blood of the former.

Youssou Ndour, a worldwide Senegalese mbalax singer has put emphasis in one of his song entitled «xaalis» how the powerful feed themselves on the powerless, the moneyed class on the unmoneyed class, and the employers on the employees. Senegal like Kenya is a country where class division is so conspicuous and visible. Class division in Senegal is a by-product of misgovernance of the political leaders of our country. Since the independence of the country, Senegal has always been characterized by misgovernance but this fact is more increased when the democrats accede to power. The Wade regime has opened way to debauchery in the country, then misappropriation of public funds, shade dealings, affairism and vampirism have become common practice. These misdeeds done by rulers of the country can but widen the discrepancy between the classes. The low class workers would always be the sacrificial lamb as they often pay the penalty of the leaders' wrong-doings. This will result in exacerbating the Senegalese class division.

Both Ngugi and Steinbeck do not see eye to eye with those who think finding their salvation on the workers' sweat. These two writers just want that each worker to gain in turn what he has deserved and Steinbeck believes that there will never be harmony and peace in the world mainly in the US if there is not a fairer redistribution of the wealth.

Ngugi, one of the most radical African writers denounce bitterly the post-colonial society ruled by those whose main lust is to live on the sweat of the workers. Then he points out in the novel:

«The world of the robber and the world of the robbed.

the world of the lords of theft and the victims of theft,

of the oppressors and the oppressed, of those who

eat what have been produced by others, and the producers

themselves». (DOC, 186)

We have understood that in the lair gathered by the local and international thieves, debating ways and means of depriving the whole nation of its rights , no man of low class is allowed to attend the ceremony , only the moneyed class is welcomed, those who have no mercy on the poor . The clothes they wear and their physical portrait illustrate that these leaders have only one purpose: It is to squeeze the last shilling out of the masses by all means.

Ngugi does not simply wish to repeat time and again the pattern established with Gitutu for each of the areas of Kenyan life he wishes to satirize. Before Gitutu, we have seen the chicken-thief, Ndaaya, chased off the stage for confusing his own petty thieving with great feast of exploitation achieved by the rich and powerful. This shows the dire straits in which the post-colonial Kenyan society and as well as the fruit-pickers of Torgas valley are confronted with. The fruit-pickers of Torgas valley face terrible ordeals and they are those of hunger, thirst and in a more basic sense decent living condition.

Food is a real problem. They feed themselves poorly with tins of beans. And since food and water are vital to human, they need to feed accordingly and the owners refuse to supply them with enough and adequate food. Thinking that, the best way to have them bend to their will is to give them just enough to keep their souls and bodies together. The living conditions are extremely hard as is shown in In Dubious Battle:

«Along the rear wall and old mattress was laid on

the ground and on this lay a young girl, her face

pale and streaked with brown dirt, her hair matted.» (IDB, 60)

By showing the ill-treatment and lack of consideration that the workers daily suffer, Steinbeck mends for the public opinion the sad realities although food is quite available for every one of the American people. In The Grape of Wrath, the okies are subjected and treated in California as dirty-son-of-a-bitch and trouble-makers. This stigmatization is all the more unbearable since the okies have no intention of harming anybody; they just want to earn a livelihood in an honest way by selling their sweat.

In the competition of modern theft and robbery in the lair in Devil on the Cross, the thieves are divided among them into two clans, the clan of the fatties and the clan of the skinnies. Each class thinks to be cannier than the other. Then, Kihaahu wa Gatheeca, the lanky adulterer, is allowed to exposed tree key areas in which social welfare is transformed into big business: education, local government, and housing. In education, he has discovered the fraudulent schools with illusory standards can not attract wealthy parents if their false prospectuses are based on indigenous syllabus. Only the glittering facade of a fully westernised programme can trick the status-seekers. This happens in a moment when the locals are dying of hunger in Kenya. In these particular circumstances, the few who detain the wealth refuse to share the poor, which makes the economic environment of the country harder for the locals. Worst of all, they are devising ways and means to take the least belongings from the poor. In In Devil on the Cross, the workers being conscious of the owners' intention and desire, they intensify the struggle although food has become a serious problem. This impediment does not prevent them from bolstering their determination and toughness. Hospitals, police, courts, and all of these are at odds against them because it is the owners who have power on all of them. Thus, the hospitals refuse to give medical assistance to all those from the working class although they are all citizens and they have the legal right to be protected and cured. The condition under which Liza delivers her child is unbearable in In Dubious Battle:

«A human being mouldn't live like that they do.....

They ain't a hell of a lot

Better than gorillas» (IDB, 243)

In Devil on the Cross, the discrepancy between the two antagonistic classes as far as welfare and social status are concerned is really conspicuous. When the procession of workers, students, women and children is heading for the cave to root out that evil which is the competition of theft and robbery in the country, most of the workers who are in the procession are in a sorry plight; children are barefooted, women partly naked. All of this explains that these people are left in the background and they have no part to play in the running of the country. Ngugi lays emphasis on their physical portrait to draw people's attention to the gap existing between people living in the same nation. He describes the chairman of the Ilmorog branch of the Organization for Modern Theft and Robbery as following:

«He had a well-fed body, his cheeks were round,

like two melons; his eyes were big and red, like

two plums; and his neck was huge, like the stem

of a baobab tree. His stomach was only slightly

larger than his neck. He had two gold teeth in

his lower jaw.» (DOC, 64)

While the well-provided class is rejoicing in the situation, the workers go through terrible ordeals. In In Dubious Battle and in Devil on the Cross, the workers encounter that situation, having all the difficulties to clothe themselves decently and to live in a neat way. Jim's family is finally disintegrated because of the constraints placed on it. His father, Roy, who works in a slaughterhouse to feed his family, keeps drinking warm blood to keep his strength. He is then reduced in a state of mere animal and he has no right to complaint about his lot. As a result his casting a blight on that subhuman job, he is just killed savagely and his murderer left unpunished. It is that kind of suffering that they daily encounter in the places they live. More often than not, it is not an easy task for them to have a safe place to sleep. The areas in which they live are unprovided with electricity, pure water and sanitation care. The authorities do everything in their power in order to condemn them in the everlasting darkness because of their awareness of the exploitation. This situation urges the workers to pluck up their courage and confront the dominant class.

«Mac set his lantern down beside the mattress...

Gently he tried to lift the dirty quilt which covers

Her». (IDB, 58)

Seeing that the way they are dressed, one will realise that the dominants in Devil on the Cross do not sweat to have what they deserve but grab other people's property. Ngugi uses in this respect ridicule and sarcasm that are part and parcel of irony to portray the Kenyan elite, some of them are totally disfigured. They are only disfigured by overeating as illustrated by the thieves and robbers at the feast:

«Gitutu had a belly that protruded so far that it would have touched the ground had it not been supported by he braces that held up his trousers. It seems as if his belly had absorbed all his limbs and all other organs of his body». (DOC, 99)

The clashes between the employers and the employees are bound to occur because each group wants to preserve its interests by all costs. The International Organisation for Theft and Robbery (IORT) and the Growers' Association (GA) in In Dubious Battle are similar types of organisations that gather the owners' class. The ultimate goal of these organisations is to maintain the yoke of domination and supremacy over the masses. These dominant classes want to live a gorgeous life and want their fellows to live like pigs. As reported by Patrick Rafridi, the living standards there could only favour Steinbeck's sympathy for the left-wing organisations. In fact, the region of Salinas valley stands in Steinbeck's eyes as one rare American area where the Marxist social visions can be applied as extreme poverty prevails next to blatant wealth.

Class compartmentalization is one of the most outstanding features that characterize the American society during the Depression Years. The social strata are made of top-ranking people who are the dominators, they have no mercy on the workers, and they do everything to shield their wealth. The middle-class which is neither rich nor poor can hardly survive. In fact, a character that embodies these people is Gaturia in Devil on the Cross. Last but not least, the hoypolloy that occupies the bottom of the social ladder are the victimized. They suffer from social segregation and Roy in In Dubious Battle is the prototype of the sufferers with his deadly injuries.

There is no real link that exists between the owners and the dispossessed if it were not the relationship that links the exploiter and the exploited, the dominator and the dominated. In Devil on the Cross, there are clear-cut contrasts between these clans. The dominant class lives in Golden Heights which is a district in Nairobi that looks like a paradise. The sights of this district are very attractive, everything is neat and clean, there is sanitation care everywhere in the district, and the streets are well-lit. Then, the way Ngugi describes it makes one feel to be in the Garden of Eden. This area is reserved for the lobby that rules the country and no tiller or worker is allowed to settle in. Contrary to the other parts of the town, there is a conspicuous lack of infrastructures, no sanitation care, and lack of schools for the poor children, in a nutshell; there is a gloomy outlook for the workers whose ultimate hope lays in their courage.

In In Dubious Battle, the workers are not considered human beings with real dignity. In a country where the workers are mercilessly underpaid before the very eyes of the law, there is bound to be class confrontation. Class confrontation in the novels is the result of that, one class thinks to be superior to the other classes and then they can do whatever they want because the latters are under their domination. Throughout the novels under study, there are no decent places or houses where the workers can rest properly. They live in camps and in destitute living conditions when in fact it is them who sustain the economy of the country by their sweat. That lawlessness existing between the classes seems to widen the discrepancy and intensifies their clashes.

The capitalistic system is one of the remarkable features in the relation of the bank-farmers and the owner-farmers as well. In fact, the farmers face exploitation from their native village town. In Dubious Battle is an exemplary radical analysis of the exploitation of agricultural workers. The novel attacks the very social assumption about private properties and class differences on which the social order rests. It presents one of the most radical critiques of the social order. In Native Son by Richard Wright, the social compartmentization takes a form of segregation and this is shown through the terms of Black Belt and White Belt. The latter represents the place where the rich white people dwell whereas the former is the representation of the place where the poor black live, which is commonly known as ghetto.

The social disparities are directly linked in the novels under study to the economic conditions. The poor are unable to find a suitable employment. They are neither likely to save sufficient money to pay for a single-family dwellings nor rent in the most desirable areas. As a matter of fact, they are condemned to either substandard housing or to public housing which is in many books sign of economic and social degradation. That is shown in the novels under study by the plight of one class threatened by a class of organisers that has become more powerful than the other.

Drawing examples from the 1930's misery Depression , Steinbeck wants to show without bias that both rich owners and deprived workers are both trapped in an economic tangle and commonly care about preserving the balance upon which they depend for survival, then the gap between the two antagonistic classes has become wider and wider. One class that has been a threat to the national balance has become more dangerous than ever. In In Dubious Battle as well as in The Grape of Wrath and Devil on the Cross, Growers set up interest group to impose their power and their economic domination over the workers. The Farmers' Association works as economic lobbies. The association which is meant to regulate the relationship between the workers and the employers serves to keep up the price of their production and to lower the wages of the employees in order to make more profits through fraudulent methods. Then, Kenyan agriculture has been controlled by the Growers who are to gather in strong cooperatives in order to dominate the industry. The Growers set wages and determine the type of working conditions throughout the industry. Then dissenting farmers could be tyrannising by owners who only think for themselves, no matter how hard the economic environment may be. This phenomenon leads to the victimization of the working class.

2. The victimization of the working class

Throughout the novels it is obviously clear that the authors' ultimate aim resides in the eradication of all social evils which thwart the individual aspirations and needs, one of which is leading a decent life. But it still remains that the workers are faced with hunger, exploitation, poverty to name but a few which contribute negatively to their well-being. Then, the continuous economic exploitation combined with the hostile environment gradually impoverishes the workers and the migrant community and puts them in a most drastic need. In effect, the labour purchasing power melts away day after day in the facing of manipulated prices of goods and scanty wages they earn. Thus, they become aware of the constraints which such a system entails. Then, the main concern becomes the survival of each member since the whole working community is threatened by the spectre of hunger.

Deprived of any possibility to rejoice freely the fruit of their sweat, they become poorer and poorer the harder they work. The plight of the wretched culminates in Devil on the Cross when the watchdogs of the foreign forces which rule over the country decide to strengthen the relationship between them and the International Organisation for Theft and Robbery (IOTR) as the master of ceremony put during the ceremony:

«I think you all know that we have already applied to become full members of IOTR. The visit of this delegation, plus gifts and the crown they have brought us, marks the beginning of even more fruitful period of cooperation». (DOC, 84)

Each dress of the seven representatives of the neo-colonial powers is made out of the paper money of their respective homelands, to the frank divulgence by the constants of the methods and motives with which money-magnates milk the national resources, above all the blood and sweat of the workers and peasants. This situation puts the workers in such situations that daily food becomes an obsession for the working class. In the same way in In Dubious Battle, the plight of the migrant workers reach its peak when all their savings gone away, the daily meal becomes an obsession and it is more and more out of their reach.

Migrant labours in Torgas Valley experience the difficulties to make both ends meet. After running out of money, their strike fiercely opposed by large Growers, migrants desperately fight hunger when they come to the last canned goods and beans on which they were poorly feeding themselves:

«There ain't a damn drop

They won't have to eat» (IDB, 247)

All of them are pointing out how much it will be hard for workers to sustain their strike with empty stomach and endure daily sufferings in their struggle against ostracism and exploitation. The workers living in most desperate conditions answer to a larger extent to the ruling class' wishes. The latter does everything it can to maintain the workers in poverty by making themselves stronger and stronger. Specific areas of extortion are singled out by Ngugi in the novel to show how bad the Kenyans are exploited. Big-bellied Gitutu wa Gataangaru, trailing his despoiled sugar-girl's, battens on the land.

Expropriation of the land is the key to the whole colonial and neo-colonial outrage in Kenya. Gitutu proudly relates during his testimony in the den how he has taken over vast estates from white settlers, sub-divided them into derisory plots and sold them at exorbitant prices to the citizens as he lets know :

«The land wasn't mine and the money with which I'd paid, for it wasn't mine and I hadn't added anything to the land. Where did I get the 200000shillings? From the pockets of the people. Yes, because the land really belonged to the people and the money with which I bought came from the people» (DOC, 52)

It is these kinds of wrong-doings that keep on weakening the labour force and lead them to accept any kind of job and in the long run their humanity is denied by the ruling class. In In Dubious Battle, the consequent workers surplus makes of them a cheap labour at the mercy of the greedy landlords. In such circumstances, as the Marxist argument runs, these needy workers are compelled to sell themselves every day as goods and trade items and as such they are submitted to the ups and downs of the competitions and vicissitudes of the market.

Like other goods, the cost of the work is equal to the cost of its production, then the more repulsion work, the lower wages. It is clear that for the capitalists, the worker is only worth what he just needs for survival. Gitutu in Devil on the Cross is looking forward to the day when , instead of tiny plots of land being sold to citizens, they will queue up to buy mere pots or trays of soil in which to grow food for subsistence and the very air be sold to workers by the bottleful as he points out:

«The idea I'd like to follow up is how we, the top-grade tycoons, can trap the air in the sky, put it in tins and sell it to peasants and workers, just as water and charcoal are now sold to them. When the peasants and workers became restive, and they became too powerful for our armed forces, we could simply deny them air till they knelt before us! When university students made a bit of noise, we could deny them air!» (DOC, 65)

In In Dubious Battle, the more despotism openly claims excessive profit as its only goal, the more it becomes mean and odious. As we have noticed, the scarcity of jobs accounts a lot for the growers' proud attitude but the concurrence among the working class plays another important part in their own economic exploitation. For, whenever some enlightened workers are conscious enough to refuse poor wages, hundreds of their fellows are ready to take those wages even lower ones. Thus, the scabs coming from distant areas arrive unawares are in the state of readiness to replace the striking apple-pickers. For all these workers of the poorest conditions what matters is to hang at something just to secure a livelihood. It is true that the scabs are often manipulated by the owners and they are given even better condition only to weaken the labour organisational efforts and energy for the defence of its interests but most of the time it is the consideration of personal interests that causes their vulnerability.

It clearly appears that on account of their complete poverty , migrants are ready to work for starvation wages but the merciless exploitation of the working people by capitalists extends beyond the agricultural fields, for once the workers experiences exploitation from his employer, he becomes prey to other members of the owner's camp such as shop-keepers and businessmen. These unscrupulous people very often take advantage of the seclusion and the distance of the workers camp from the town to set special price schemes for their foodstuffs. Jim pointed out angrily the same unfair practices.

In Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison points out a society in which there exist two antagonistic classes, the white race and the black race. The white race, thinking to be the superior race, maintains their supremacy over the black race that has to endure sufferings and tortures in every level.

So, not only migrants are cheated with low wages they are paid but worse prices of goods are highly raised in shops and stores nearing the camps and belonging generally to the same landowners. As a result, these workers no longer receive money because wages are bartered for foodstuffs and in such cases there exists no proportion between the amount of work and the received goods. In the long run, the system of credit set by shop-keepers in the camps leads to the enslavement of the farmers, making them hostages of the owners to whom they become indebted for the credit on food provisions.

In Devil on the Cross, in the same way Wangari just loses her plot of land simply because she is not in position to pay back her loan to a bank when the deadline has come. This shows how hard the constraints placed upon them are. When kimeenderi outlines his plan, he just wants to herd all the workers into barbed wire compounds where their blood and sweat will be pumped, squeezed and dripped from them and sent out packaged or by pipeline to the home market or for export, while the donors are kept quiescent by means of conditioned religion, education and pseudo-culture.

The Voice in Wariinga's revelation insisted that the Christian mass has already pointed the way to Kimeenderi's ideal by urging the regular imbibing of Christ's flesh and blood. Of all this doesn't prevent to keep the forces of the law in the background in case that the employee should make a show of reluctance. The exploitation of the workers not only increases the number of proletarians but it also concentrates them in considerable masses whose living conditions become the same for all. It can be acknowledged that Ngugi is a disciple of Walt Whitman from whose poem "On the Beach at Night» comes the title of the novel. Ngugi believes in Whitman's concept of brotherhood of man and remains optimistic that man can be improved.

With the levelling down of wages, with all the crowds of people kept homeless, the exploitation of the labour exceeds anything known up to now. It results in the keeping of the proletariat close or even sometimes below the starvation. The migrant workers eagerly search for jobs sustained by their strong faith in a better future keeps them continually on the move. But in spite of the hope of self-accomplishment and self-achievement long-time expected, Torgas Valley offers a bitter reality to its unfortunate labour force. The good living conditions they are hoping for turns out to be a nightmare as they encounter daily difficulties and sufferings to satisfy their needs and aspirations. In Devil on the Cross, the difficulties of the workers stem from the fact it is the crooked people who are always appointed in the Parliamentary. Then by rigging the local elections and bribing his way into office against equally ruthless opposition that Gitutu reaches the rich goal of chairmanship of the local housing committee. Then, he can pocket the fabulous percentages offered by foreign spectators in exchange for building contracts and then corruptly allocate the jerry-built maisonettes that results in his lining his pockets even more richly. The community endures debased local administration while publicly subsidized housing is hawked on the black market. Kihaahu forecasts a time when it will no longer be fixed houses, but tiny portable tents or «bird-nests» that they can pitch nightly like nomads to shelter their heads while their bodies remain at the mercy of the elements. In In Dubious Battle, hounded like refugees, these dispossessed farmers are herded in camps where they are forced to cluster. These camps reflect an oppressive reality, for these are frightful places to live and they are without pure water.

Migrants hold their camp in a large clearing where dirty tents are pitched and any of the men sleep on the ground in sausage rolls of blankets in the open. Such precarious conditions are worsened by the absence of medical assistance for the underdogs as illustrated by the one migrant women's delivery by untrained workers who acts as mid-wives. It is as if those who keep the labour in these secluded camps which remind us of the ghettos of some big cities have forgotten that an ill-person is a menace to others and it is their duty to make him well.

In Steinbeck's novel, the aspect of capitalism is viewed through the harsh living conditions of the apple-pickers and Jim's family in particular. Many workers' families are forced to disintegrate which such a system of capitalism entails. In Ngugi's Devil on the Cross, capitalism is illustrated by a system that prevents peasants from improving economically and socially. They have fewer opportunities.

The modernization of the society was not totally positive. In the countryside, people took advantage of what the industrial revolution had caused. The mechanization of agriculture gave power to capitalists in both novels. The merciless capitalists were the owners of the most sophisticated machines of the big companies investing in farming, education and trade, and of banks which eventually evicted the poor from their lands.

This situation in, In Dubious Battle, is caused by the fact that they find themselves indebted due to the purchase of lands, tools, animals and other items bought on credit. In Devil on the Cross, the impediments brought about by a capitalist system are really conspicuous. If the actual destitute living circumstances gain ground every passing day, it is because the capitalists who are the rulers of the country seek always ways and means to throw the workers in the daily whirlpool of poverty because once they are obsessed to find something to eat just to keep their souls and bodies together, they will have no opportunity to protest. This situation is illustrated by the chicken thief Ndaaya who has admitted that he stole simply because of hunger.

One negative aspect of capitalism is to widen the discrepancy existing between the two antagonistic classes. The wealthy are becoming wealthier and wealthier and the poor are becoming poorer and poorer, and that is what the President of the Republic of France, Jacques Chirac called for the first time «les fractures sociales» in a country dominated by the haves and the have-nots.

In The Grape of Wrath as well as in In Dubious Battle, economic forces through the combination of drought and foreclosures drove farmers off their lands. As a matter of fact, many farmers in this area were sharecroppers who once owned the land and lost it, and therefore have to rent it or share it with the landlord, the bank or other leading companies. In years when they have no profit, these farmers have to borrow heavily to make the payments. When now that can not be achieved, the land is just sold or rented to somebody else. Consequently the land does not belong any longer to people who lived and worked on it. Wangari, in Devil on the Cross, is stripped of his land by a bank for the simple reason that she is not in a position to pay back a loan taken in a bank. This shows how harsh the banks are towards the underprivileged class of workers and in this respect it may not be a fallacy to assert that banks which belong mainly to the landowners rely on the poor's possessions to survive.

To show how the American society has always been marked by capitalism, it would be interesting to make a flashback to the history of California. First people who exploited the land were Indians by the early 1800's, but the American, looking for profits and taking it at any rate, snatched the land from its former inhabitants. In his novel it is stated that:

^4(*)«Once California belonged to Mexico and its land to Mexicans , and a horde of tattered feverish Americans poured in and such was their hunger for land that they took the land... they put up houses and barns , they return the earth and planted crops. And these things were possession and possession was ownership».

Profit motive is central in the book. The owners strongly believe that without profit no company can survive. The representatives of the capitalists like the Growers and the policemen are rude to the migrant workers. They overtly show their concern and warn to whoever is an obstacle to this concern of money-making process. Such inhuman behaviours account for the capitalist logic making more and more secure wealth. And this constitutes a fundamental principle of capitalism that one owner acknowledged in the novel:

^5(*)«But you see, a bank or a company can't do that, because those creatures don't breathe air. They breathe profits; they can eat the interest of money. If they don't get, they die the way you die without air».

In In Dubious Battle, capitalist ways of running estates follow the same strategy. As a matter of fact, the Torgas Finance Company which is the belonging of three men, control the Growers Association. Mac, a major character, notices that landlords draw from such a situation a tremendous power:

«You think we'll get beat?

I don't know. They got this valley organised.

It`s not so hard to do where a few men

control everything: land, court, and bank». (IDB, 124)

This ongoing business dispossessing the farmers of their lands proves to be a real economic and social injustice. This situation urges them to combine their forces and resist to oppression.

* ⁴ John Steinbeck, The Grape Wrath, op. cit., p297

* ⁵ John Steinbeck, ibidem., p41