In 1938, the San Francisco News hired John Steinbeck to cover the desperate conditions wrought by the Great Depression in California's Central Valley. Finding entire communities devastated by disease and hunger, Steinbeck was enraged. The experience compelled him to write The Grapes of Wrath, confronting an inconvenient truth about the American Dream: hard work and virtue do not guarantee success. When it was published in 1939, The Grapes of Wrath was accused of being false, offensive, and Communist. It sold out immediately.

Novel Reflections on the American Dream explores the characters, plots and themes of seven novels that deal with wealth, poverty, and the nature of success and failure in America. In an exploration that moves from the turn of the 20th century into progressively more contemporary surroundings - and reflects increasingly diverse voices - passages from each book are dramatized through haunting still photography that is inventively animated and coupled with original and archival footage.

Wednesday, 4/4/07 from 9-11 p.m. ET

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