Tayah Simpson

English III Period 3

Ms. Manchester

January 28, 2018

A Poem for Cotton Pickers

Subdue your tired, your lonely, your stress

for there’s more work to do, by the grace of God.

Lay down your happiness, your freedom, your life,

for the work is never ending, as is your sertitude.

Through pain and punishment, abuse and words,

they beat you down, as low as the dirt.

Bloodied fingers, aching backs,

little money, with no time to rest,

Fill a bag a day at best.

Sacrifice your men, your women, your children,

To the rows, the fields, the endless abyss.

Hours in the sun turn to lifetimes of pain,

Just for the day to end and do it all again.

Need the money before we leave,

California’s a-comin’ soon.

No jobs in our future, no money comin’ our way

 But we’ve come and we’re here to stay.

Give up your family, your home, your you,

For the fields will take it,

And turn you into a slave.

Give up your love, your hopes, and dreams.

Tayah Simpson

English III Period 3

Ms. Manchester

January 28, 2018

Slave to the Field

In chapter 27 of the novel ​The Grapes of Wrath​ by John Steinbeck, there is an urgent

need for cotton pickers, and the lives of those workers are explained. These workers formed a

sense of community, so the most fitting philosophy would be socialism. This only relates to

socialism in the sense that they all cooperated together in the same type of work to complete a

shared end goal. In this chapter, I believe Steinbeck is trying to convey the message that, despite

the fact it might have been against one’s will or one’s last resort, the cotton pickers are like a

functioning society that revolves around socialism.

Steinbeck communicates his message through repeatedly using the words ‘cotton’,

‘pickin’ ‘bag’, ‘cloth’, and retelling stories of other pickers. In one example, he expresses a

women having a “nigger” child and no longer being able to hold her head up, but continued to be

a good picker (407). Another story involved a man who wouldn’t get his bag paid out, a man

who, “Ever’ job he got a new bag, an’ ever’ fiel’ was done ’fore he got his weight” (408).

Through the repetition of the ‘cotton’, ‘pickers’, ‘cloth’, ‘bag’ and retold stories, Steinbeck

illustrates the urgent need for pickers, and the gravity of cotton to making money, the weight of

your bag, and for wear.

People are desperate for money in times of need, especially when moving one’s family

across country. The purpose of the 27th intercalary chapter was to depict the sense of desperation
to make money however possible, as well as show the urgency for employers to find workers.

Steinbeck accomplishes this by giving stories of workers persevering despite the rough

conditions, and repeated “cotton pickers wanted”. In conclusion, the overall message of this

chapter seems to be don’t always take the opportunities most easily obtained, because they may

not best for accommodating necessities. In the instance of this chapter, it seems to appeal to

pathos more because it brings out passionate emotions involving forced labor and slavery.