The Ghost of Tom Joad guitar work and the lyrics on many of the tracks are a somber reflection of life in the mid-1990s in America and Mexico. The character of Tom Joad entered the American consciousness in John Steinbeck’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Grapes of Wrath", set against the economic hardships of the Great Depression. This spawned a film version starring Henry Fonda, which in turn inspired folk singer Woody Guthrie to pen "The Ballad of Tom Joad". The album's release was followed by Springsteen's solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, which ran from 1995 to 1997 and consisted of mostly small
The Family (Ba Jin novel) the young heroes of "Family" leaves home to pursue lives of worldly engagement. Mei Han, author of the "Family" entry in "The Facts on File Companion to the World Novel: 1900 to the Present", said that the most "moving" portions of "The Family" were the deaths of Mingfeng, Mei, and Ruijue. The Family (Ba Jin novel) The Family (家, pinyin: Jiā, Wade-Giles: Chia) is a semi-autobiographical novel by Chinese author Ba Jin, the pen-name of Li Feigan (1904-2005). His most famous novel, it chronicles inter-generational conflict between old ways and progressive aspirations in an upper-class family in the city of