In Dubious Battle
When California fruit pickers strike against starvation wages, two Communist labor organizers, Jim Nolan and the hardened Mac, arrive to turn the workers' desperation into an organized fight — and to use the strike itself, win or lose, as a lesson in the tactics of revolution. Steinbeck tells the story with deliberate detachment, following the strike's violent escalation without endorsing either side, so the reader is left to weigh the workers' suffering against the organizers' willingness to spend other people's lives for a cause.\n\nPublished in 1936, In Dubious Battle was Steinbeck's first major critical success and the first of what is often called his labor or Dust Bowl trilogy, followed by Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939).
A young, idealistic man who joins the labor movement and becomes a member of the Party, and whose transformation from naive to disillusioned is the novel's emotional core.
A doctor and former doctor's son who joins the strike's camp to maintain sanitation and medical care, and who becomes a voice of pragmatism and skepticism against the Party's idealism.
A veteran organizer for the Party who mentors Jim and drives the strike's tactics and organization.
A veteran strike leader and member of the Party's inner circle who helps organize the pickers.
