MARXIST THEORY
Jim Nolan is the product of a society of the haves and have not’s. In Steinbeck’s book, In Dubious Battle, Jim was fighting for “…-hunger mostly “(Steinbeck 19). Jim grows up feeling hopeless; fighting perhaps a rebellion against the power or people that have money. He experiences this feeling while fighting against “the establishment”, which he calls “bosses” or the authority. The people where Jim directs his anger is at the “bosses’ who Jim believes control him and his father and who dictate their lives. Whether it is true or not, to Jim that is his reality. While incarcerated he experiences an epiphany of sorts, of people who are similarly in the same situation, that have anger but are viewed as without feeling hopelessness. It is in this setting of collective thinking or the conviction of this diverse group (while incarcerated with them), that eventually things will change in their favor. Jim’s views change at this point. They are angry but not at an individual but “… the whole system of bosses…” (20). Steinbeck uses the proletarian and the radical groups to formulate the writing of In Dubious Battle.
Works Cited
Steinbeck, John, and Warren G. French. In Dubious Battle. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.
