Difficulty Paper

             In Dubious Battle is written by John Steinbeck about the struggles of farm workers and working class for surviving during the Depression of the 1930s.  Because the circumstances were happened in 1930s, thus the subject matter within the time frame and languages were difficult to understand.

From beginning of the book, Jim Nolan was from a working class and was arrested for thirty days of vagrancy. After being released, Jim joined the Party due to the fact he was hopeless with his life. Besides Jim’s family was ruined, his father was so much in labor trouble and always got beaten; his sister was disappeared suddenly; his mother died when she has learnt that Jim was in jail.  One day, Jim met Mac McLeod and they went together down the Torgas Valley to help farm workers on strike for getting better wages and getting out of poverty, because the Growers’ Association announced a pay cut to the pickers. Down at the apple orchards, the opposed groups called Jim and Mac were “reds.” When I read to this, I thought “reds” mean Jim and Mac were in jail in and out for vagrancy pretty often.  I did not realize that “red” was used for Communist Party member. Sometimes, Jim and Mac were referred as radicals.  I thought a radical was represented for the Labor Union member. I was confused between those, so I came back to Introduction section and I re-read again in order to understand more about history and event related to the time frame of the novel.

Other difficulties I found in the novel were languages that the author used. Sometimes the author used slangs and farm workers’ languages that I have rarely heard. For example, Dan, the old man was an apple picker, said that “I was in the north woods when the Wobblies was raising hell. …”  (52). I did not know what was Wobblies meant, I had to go back to the Introduction to learn that "Wobblies" were member of the radical Industrial Workers of the World in 1905. Another example, the author used farm workers’ languages when they had conversations together, on page 186, Albert said “No idears, no money, no nothing.” And another sentence was said “When I’m workin’ and I get three dollars to the good and I get set to look up a floozy, somethin’ on this buggy busts and costs three dollars. …” The truth was I had no idea what Albert’s comment was, so I went to English Dictionary website to search for “Buggy is Older Slang – an automobile, especially an old or dilapidated one". 

               In conclusion, even In Dubious Battle was difficult to understand due to the time frame and languages. However, it was the great novel to learn abou the hard life of working class and farm workers struggled to survive during the Depression. Aslo they were outraged by mistreatment from the farm owners. The subject matter from the novel was related to the UFW organization was born in 1962. The UFW helps to protect farm workers against lower wages and also helps farm workers stay away from bad working condition.