Whakamahia te rerenga e whai ake nei: Ko nga whakapiri a Steinbeck ki nga kaituhi maui, nga kairipoata, me nga rangatira o te uniana mahi pea i awe i tana tuhituhi. I uru ia ki te League of American Writers, he whakahaere Communist, i te 1935. I whakaakona a Steinbeck e nga kaituhi radical a Lincoln Steffens me tana wahine a Ella Winter. Na roto i a Francis Whitaker, he mema o te John Reed Club mo nga kaituhi o te Communist Party USA, i tutaki a Steinbeck me nga kaiwhakahaere patu mai i te Cannery and Agricultural Workers 'Industrial Union. I te tau 1939, ka hainahia e ia he reta me etahi atu kaituhi hei tautoko i te
Ko te whakaekenga a te Soviet o Finland me te kāwanatanga puppet i whakatūria e te Soviet.