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 (Shimazaki novel) social ladder as their eldest sons, Koizumi Minoru and Hashimoyo Tatsuo, take on disastrous financial projects. The character Sankichi is the youngest son of the Koizumi family, a writer – a thinly disguised "alter ego" for the author himself. The Family (Shimazaki novel) The Family is a Japanese novel written by Tōson Shimazaki, first serialized in 1910–11 under the title "Ie" (家). This autobiographical novel deals with the disintegration of two provincial families, the Koizumis and the Hashimotos. "The Family" covers a period of twelve years in the lives of the Koizumi and the Hashimoto families, from 1898 to 1910.