Final essay as i was not able to post it on Turnitin

Omar Abdulaziz

Ms. Knapp

19 Dec, 2011

Final Research Paper

A Reader-Response perspective of In Dubious Battle

John Steinbeck was one of the greatest authors of the late 18^th century. Steinbeck wrote many famous books, but perhaps one of his most famous publications was In Dubious Battle. There is a common belief that In Dubious Battle was created for the sole purpose of Communist propagation along with the belief that Steinbeck himself supported a revival of the Communist Party, but whether or not these beliefs are true is a very debatable point. This debate is also focus of my essay. From the perspective of a reader-response critic, I argue that Steinbeck was not a supporter of the revival of the Communist party or Communism itself, but merely an author trying to use Communist themes and philosophy as springboard for other themes. These themes include but are not limited to: activity and work as a group, moral orientation, creating and achieving goals, and accepting changes in life,

In Dubious Battle is set in the apple orchards of Torgas Valley during the Roaring 20’s. The story revolves around two Communist radicals named Mac and Jim. The story begins with Jim joining the Communist party, and since Jim is homeless, he is assigned to live in a safe house. The safe house is where Jim meets Mac, who takes a liking to Jim and becomes his mentor. In the beginning, Jim’s only duties are to write letters, and do any other chores that need to be done. But all that changes when Mac hears of the wage cuts on apple pickers in the Torgas Valley. Knowing that the great opportunity to make a change wouldn’t last long, Mac decides to go to Torgas valley in hopes of starting a protest and takes Jim along for the experience.

After Mac and Jim get to the valley, they come across a small camp of pickers. Mac and Jim help the one of the pickers’ daughter to deliver her baby. By delivering the baby, Mac and Jim win the trust of the picker’s and are accepted into picker group. After they apply for jobs and start working on the farm, they start to indirectly pass the idea of a strike around. Mac and Jim also befriend some of the natural leaders of the picker group, London and Dakin. With the help of the leaders, and constant talk about the strike, it finally breaks out, and all the workers abandon their jobs. There are many encounters after this between strikers and the orchard owners, violent and non-violent. Another member, also from the Communist party named Joy also comes to help Mac and Jim win some of the replacement pickers over to the side of the strikers but is immediately killed. Mac takes advantage of this and uses Joy’s corpse to rile up the workers. But everything that Mac does to keep the strike alive is impermanent, and things start to collapse. Due to the growers becoming angrier day by day, and the intensifying confusion of the strikers, a lot of tension is created. And because of this tension, Jim is shot and killed and the story abruptly ends with Mac using a Jim’s body to propagate aggression. Including a summary of the book is vital to the essay as many examples are used to display the different themes in the book.

As I explained before, the main theme in In Dubious Battle is thought to be Communism, or rather how Communism leads to success. Some examples of Communism include but are not limited to the use of equal shares of the benefits derived from labor in the striker camp, and the very Marxist idea of giving the poor a fighting chance or in our situation, a chance to fight. Keeping these ideas in mind, the reader might be convinced that In Dubious Battle may only be a communist propaganda, but I assure you it is not the central theme. There are much more important themes in the book to look at such as the theme of belonging to a group. A perfect example of this theme takes place during the birth scene. The way Mac involves everyone in the camp, assigning them tasks, makes everyone feel important. Mac knows that involving people in an activity creates excitement. And also after the delivery takes place, Mac has everyone burn the cloth used and unused to create a big bonfire. Mac states that, “Every man that gave part of his clothes felt that the work was his own. They all feel responsible for that baby. It's theirs, because something from them went to it. To give back the cloth would have cut them out” (49). Though the workers knew that that even the unused cloth was being burned, it didn’t bother them because they knew they were part of something bigger than themselves, and that as a group they bought life into the world, that feeling of belonging overpowered their need for something materialistic. Another great example of this theme of belonging to a group is demonstrated in the beginning of the story when Jim is being interviewed for membership. Jim’s explains his life as depressing and without meaning. Jim’s father is killed by the police and his mother follows soon after dying of depression. He explains that he wants to do belong to something again, not to his dead family but to a new family, and so with joining the party, he leaves all his depression and sadness behind. So again, we see the emphasis of belonging to a group.

As the story advances, Mac makes it obvious that it doesn’t matter if the strike succeeds or not. What Mac feels is that, just by giving the Pickers a taste of strike, he has spoiled them with self-confidence and most importantly, an identity. Mac understands the fact that without something to work towards and without an identity, people are lost. He clearly expresses his views in a conversation with London when he says “They know how much capital thinks of them and how quick capital would poison 'em like a bunch of ants.... We showed them two things- what they are, an' what they have to do.(327)” Even if the strike fails the idea and feeling the strikers felt would never die down, the idea of strike was planted and it would grow and grow, it no longer depended on Mac and Jim. What I extract from this is that knowing your objectives and your identity should be a goal in life, the workers were lost and Mac and Jim gave them an identity as strikers and an end goal which was to win the strike. This goal is as applicable in modern times as it was in this situation.

But going back to where Mac says that it doesn’t matter to him whether the strike is a success of failure, I would like to add that not only were the strikers given self-confidence and an identity, but also an understanding that they have rights. The reason there was never a strike before was because the workers failed to recognize these rights. Now that the idea was present, it would spread like an infection. This renders the matter of winning or losing the strike insignificant. Torgas Valley was just one of the many places that workers were being treated unjustly, Mac knew that even if this strike was a loss there would definitely be a victory. He clarifies when he says "We haven't a chance. I figure these guys here'll probably start deserting as soon as much trouble starts. But you don't want to worry about that, Jim. The thing will carry on and on. It'll spread and some day- it'll work.(161)” In this quotation and throughout the book, we always see that one lingering idea that is so strongly suggested by Communism, which is, if put very simply, to free the worker from the grasp of the Wealthy. Communism seeks to vanquish the social classes so there is no upper class, and to give power to the worker, and that is what In Dubious Battle seems to be all about, fighting against the Wealthy. But expressing this Communist theme was definitely not Steinbeck’s intention. Steinbeck is merely using this idea to show that a large war cannot be won in a single battle. Steinbeck perceives the minor strikes and struggles the Communist party went through as small bricks that fit into a much larger and stronger wall. Just because you lose a battle doesn’t meant that you should give up, the more you push while expecting to win the better your chances are of winning. Steinbeck provides the reader with something to relate their problems to by using Communist struggles of the 1920’s and the 1930’s. Whether it’s a family problem or a work problem, you can only win if you take it one step at a time.

I also noticed that at several places in the book, the strike appears to be collapsing around the strikers. But then every time the strike is saved because a new idea is introduced thus slightly changing the focus but keeping the strike alive. When the workers are going to jump Mac and Jim, London’s fight saves them, when the cops try to stop the strikers at the train station; Joy gets shot by a vigilante. This leads the workers to fight not only for them but also for the Joy. Even when Jim shows his face as a leader and is then shot, nothing ever slows down, Mac just uses his body as a symbol of the struggle through which everyone was going through, and gets the strike moving again. What these examples show is that to keep something moving, you can always change its direction by a little bit for the sake of keeping it going. This principle or theme can apply to any industry, warfare, and even moral principles. There are always options, and if you choose to step around or create a new path, you will keep on moving.

 Towards the ending of the book, which is Jim’s death, Steinbeck leaves the reader with many unanswered questions like what happens to Doc Burton, do the strikers succeed or not, and does London join the Communist party or not. I believe that Steinbeck’s purpose for these cliffhangers was to point us towards another significant theme, which is that certain things have no ending. Steinbeck displays this universal idea perfectly by not providing closure.

Steinbeck articulates many themes in In Dubious Battle, but Communism is not one of them. Communism is used as background to which the highlights (themes) are added. To sum it up, Steinbeck showed me that the need to belong in a group and have my own identity along with objectives is my basic need as a human; he showed me that not every war can be one with a single battle and to overcome your problems you have to take it one step at a time. Lastly, by leaving an uncertain ending, Steinbeck shows us that closure is not as important as it seems to be, and that not knowing is sometimes better than knowing. Ignoring these themes as you realize how deeply they are rooted in the essence of modern society is impossible. And thanks to Mr. John Steinbeck, they will remain there for many centuries to come.

Work Cited

Blunden, Andy.  The Principles of Communism.  2005.  12/17/11     <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm >.

Downing, David.  Communism.  Not Given: Heinemann Library, 2002.

Not Given.  The Martha Measely Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies.  Not Given.12/13/11      <http://as.sjsu.edu/steinbeck/society/index.jsp>.

Steinbeck, John. In Dubious Battle. Rose bank, Johannesburg: Penguin Books, 2006.