John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" is not just the fictional saga of one family's struggle in the 1930s. Its themes -- ecological catastrophe, financial collapse, poverty and discrimination -- still resonate today.

Four Cornell faculty members analyzed the novel for an audience of about 3,500 freshmen and new transfer students Aug. 23 in Barton Hall, as part of the university's ninth annual New Student Reading Project.

"Beyond being a work of literature, [the book] raises a range of social, economic, ecological and historical issues. It gives us a perspective on an era of American history that we thought was long gone but which turns out to have unpleasant analogies to our current situation," said Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Laura Brown, who welcomed students and introduced the panelists.

Scholars in economics, environmental science, labor and English each presented their views on the book and its meaning.

"We wanted to approach this book from multiple perspectives. 'The Grapes of Wrath' has many different kinds of relevance" to students and to the Cornell community, Brown said.

Jeremy Braddock, assistant professor of English, looked at elements representing truth and fiction in Steinbeck's novel -- romantic Western literature, handbills offering work in California to migrants -- and media attempts to document its subjects in real life.

"Attacks on the novel regarding its 'facts' and 'truthfulness' were unusual for a work of fiction," he said.

Natalie Mahowald, associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, described the experience of being in a dust storm -- "it is unforgettable" -- and discussed the disasters that begin and end the book.

"The scientific perspective is that both of these extreme events are natural events, but they could have been caused by humans" and also prevented, she said. "Soil conservation efforts really are about education, to teach farmers to think about the long-term effects of their actions on the soil."

Soil degradation and climate change are major environmental concerns still facing us, she said. "If we don't maintain soil fertility, there are going to be problems feeding everyone. Agriculture and human-land interactions are fundamental to our future. … Cornell is a great place to look at some of these issues."

Professor of management Maureen O'Hara outlined "the economic environment" of the book -- including foreclosures, bank failures, rising unemployment, falling prices, government intervention and "a widespread anger for Wall Street from Main Street. … Sound familiar? That actually isn't now, it's then," she said. "The backdrop of the Great Depression is a very exciting area for us to think about right now."

The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s followed years of declining farm income, and "there was no escaping the general economic decline," O'Hara said. "The situation that the Joads found themselves in was a terrifying one. Steinbeck captures people caught … in a situation where they feel powerless. I think we see that played out everywhere today as well."

Jefferson Cowie, associate professor of labor history, illustrated how the novel's influence "crystallized a notion of the working-class hero, and it projects forward through the postwar period. The image of the Okie is a kind of class icon in American history."

As many of them moved from the fields to defense plants in the 1940s, middle-class affluence became possible, and union membership and wages would increase considerably until the early 1970s, he said.

Cowie used examples of varied popular depictions of Okies, from Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee" to "Easy Rider," "The Beverly Hillbillies" and Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad."

The panel helped students prepare for group discussions of the book across campus Aug. 24.

"I found the book to be interesting," said Mollie Maher '13. "It covered many different aspects of life through the plight of the Joads."

ILR transfer student Nicole Wolski '11 said the novel "showed the suffering of the people in a personal way. We read all about the Great Depression, we study that in school, but you don't really see that up close, like the people in California afraid of the Okies because they didn't want to be like them or end up like them."