The paper shows how the era of the Dust Bowl was an era of mass migration as thousands moved from the region where drought
and other factors had ruined the farmland to California, believed to be the land of milk and honey and opportunity. The paper explores how the Dust Bowl and the mass migration it fostered are well illustrated in the novel "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck, and both the novel and the era it depicts are further illuminated by the article "Steinbeck, Guthrie and Popular Culture" by Elaine S. Apthorp. The paper further shows how the novel and the article complement one another and contribute to our understanding of the era and of the way Steinbeck shaped that era into an artistic statement in his novel.