Bonds With the Land in The Grapes of Wrath

496 Words1 Page

The Grapes of Wrath: Bonds With the Land

To human beings, environment is vital. After spending a number of years in one place, it is very human to become attached. This is especially true with farmers. They spend their lives learning the land around them. The land becomes a friend to them, having almost human value. In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, author John Steinbeck conveys the connection people have with their land, without which they feel they cannot survive mentally or physically.

All humans think of a home as a place for comfort. Even though I have lived in different places, my home right now is where I feel I belong. In The Grapes of Wrath, the Oklahoma farmers feel they belong to the land and do not want to leave it. In response to Muley Graves' refusal to leave, Jim Casy says, "' Fella gets use' to a place, its hard to go'"(65). Muley's refusal to leave shows that he is physically and emotionally attached to the land he farmed before his eviction. It is illegal for him to remain on the land; yet, he cannot bring himself to leave his home. The land has become a part of him.

Human beings also can become proprietary about their land. They believe that the land belongs to them, and they belong to it. Before the Joad family is finished packing, Grampa decides he does not want to leave. He says, "'This country ain't no good, but its my country. No, you all go ahead. I'll jus' stay right here where I b'long'"(143). Grampa knows that it is better if he goes, but he is tied to the land and cannot break himself free. He cannot go on, neither mentally nor physically, away from the land where he feels he belongs.

Grampa physically refuses to leave, and when forced to, his fate is sealed. Even though he talks about the wonderful life he expects to have in California, Grampa cannot mentally abandon the land. Jim Casy makes this observation after Grampa's death. "'He was foolin', all the time. I think he knowed it. An' Grampa didn't die tonight. He died the minute you took 'im off the place... He was that place, an' he knowed it'"(187). Similar to Muley Graves, Grampa's mental bond with the land prevents him from being physically able to leave it.

Show More
Related

  • Allusions In The Grapes Of Wrath

    416 Words  | 1 Pages

    People just don’t seem to give up, they continue fighting till the very end rather than lay down and succumb to the challenge faced. In “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck uses symbolism and religious allusions as unifying devices to illustrate the indomitable nature of the human spirit.

    Read More

  • Theme of Hardship in The Grapes of Wrath

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    drop their life and move to a different state. When they arrived in California they were not

    Read More

  • Analysis of "The Things They Carried"

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Things They Carried, there are many emotional burdens that each solider has to withstand. These burdens are, for the most part, physically present in everyday life as a soldier, while others, like the love of someone back home, may not be as physically noticeable. The book follows the life of Lt. Jimmy Cross, the leader of a regiment fighting during the Vietnam War.

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: the Exploration of a Tragic Hero

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    The definition of the tragic hero is a protagonist who is otherwise perfect except for a tragic flaw, also known as a fatal flaw, which eventually leads to his demise. One may ask, why have a tragic hero? The reason to have a tragic hero is to give a story purpose. A tragedy by nature isn't an uplifting story, but the introduction of a tragic hero presents an opportunity to learn from the tragedy. In other words, tragic heroes make tragedies worth reading. Let's first define the characteristics that are common to most tragic heroes and focus on those that are demonstrated by Gawain. Tragic heroes are born into nobility, responsible for their own fate, endowed with a tragic flaw, and are doomed to make a serious error in judgment. Eventually, the tragic hero will fall fr...

    Read More

  • Things They Carried Critical Analysis

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Novel The Things They Carried it starts of by talking about the things the men carried physically mentally and emotionally. Throughout the book It gives many examples of how they carry emotional things such as guilt. They tell stories to keep their men alive in memory. It explains how O'Brien has coped with war and why he writes the way he does. Throughout the book they talk about the death of their men and some of the places they were assigned to. It talks about

    Read More

  • The Yellow Paperwall

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    After analyzing Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, "The Yellow Wallpaper", from a feminist perspective it is undoubtedly shown to challenge patriarchal ideals through the stories heavy amounts of symbolism. The story revolves around the thoughts of a woman suffering from hysteria who ultimately loses her sanity due to her interactions with the isolated environment and husband, John. The story does a clear job at showing the oppressions of women in the late nineteenth century through the narrator's conversations with John, the ideas she has written down and in her head, the room in which she is caged in and finally the reflection of the Gilman's life in this story.

    Read More

  • What Makes a Good Golpher?

    380 Words  | 1 Pages

    A person who practices a lot and works hard at improving his game is the type that I feel is really a true golfer. As May Hezlet once said, "No golfer can ever become too good to practice." To have the motivation to prepare you for an endless amount of tough shots during a round is wonderful. For example, lets say you have a one-stroke lead in the Master's and you have a very difficult shot in which you must carry the ball 20 yards, and keep it within putting distance to keep your lead. If you hadn't practiced this shot, most likely you wouldn't carry the whole distance. But, if you did practice, it would take a lot of pressure off yourself and you would most likely succeed.

    Read More

  • Hamlet and his battle with depression

    1756 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hamlet, a young prince preparing to become King of Denmark, cannot understand or cope with the catastrophes in his life. After his father dies, Hamlet is filled with confusion. However, when his father's ghost appears, the ghost explains that his brother, Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, murdered him. In awe of the supposed truth, Hamlet decides he must seek revenge and kill his uncle. This becomes his goal and sole purpose in life. However, it is more awkward for Hamlet because his uncle has now become his stepfather. He is in shock by his mother's hurried remarriage and is very confused and hurt by these circumstances. Along with these familial dysfunctions, Hamlet's love life is diminishing. It is an "emotional overload" for Hamlet (Fallon 40). The encounter with the ghost also understandably causes Hamlet great distress. From then on, his behavior is extremely out of context (Fallon 39). In Hamlet's first scene of the play, he does not like his mother's remarriage and even mentions his loss of interest in l...

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Grandpa And Grandma In The Grapes Of Wrath

    206 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, is about a common family living in Oklahoma at the time of the dust bowl facing many challenges. These challenges consumed all of the nutrient from the land causing many families to leave in search of the golden state, California. Against their will, they search for work that is not to be found easily, trying to overcome many obstacles as they find a job. Two characters in his novel, Grandpa and Grandma, are a very good example of the immutability in the generation because they have grown an attachment to the land that can not be broken. Grandpa over the years had nurtured the land like a father caring for it, feeding it, providing for it’s every need; until the day when the farmers

    Read More

  • A Civil Action

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    The setting of the book is in the New England state of Woburn, Massachusetts. This is a sleepy little community that is overcast by local factories. The factories have been contaminating the ground and water supplies for several years by dumping a chemical known as TCE. Though nobody would openly admit to using the chemical, dumping the chemical, or linking it to leukemia, this deadly byproduct would later prove to be the key to the emotionally and financially draining drama.

    Read More

  • Hamlet Madness And Madness

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet undergoes a series of trials and troubles some that are internal and other’s that create towards a certain path that he cannot escape. Hamlet’s best destruction in this path of no return is characterized in the beginning with his uncertainty of his existence and feeling over the loss of his father’s death. Young Hamlet faces risk within his mind when his mother marries his uncle soon after the death of his father. The death of Hamlet’s father and the immediate marriage of King Claudius and Hamlets mother Gertrude was a major factor in Hamlets depression. Unable to comprehend his melancholy mood he boards on a journey of revenge when learning his father’s ghostly appearance is wandering the Castle at night restless from not finding closure in his life. This event derives from his father’s meeting and revealing the cause of his extraordinary death. Hamlet’s uncle Claudius schemed and conquered in killing his own brother in order to gain the throne and Hamlet in some obligation towards truth, anger, and revenge agrees to expose

    Read More

  • Hope and Endurance in The Grapes of Wrath

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath in response to the Great Depression. Steinbeck's intentions were to publicize the movements of a fictional family affected by the Dust Bowl that was forced to move from their homestead. Also a purpose of Steinbeck's was to criticize the hard realities of a dichotomized American society.

    Read More

  • The Theme of Man vs. Environment in The Grapes of Wrath

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under.   The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's.  The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods.  They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms.  The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan.  The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work.

    Read More

  • Plot Analysis Of Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin tells the fictional account of a woman who learns of her husband dying in a train crash and the ensuing hour after she is given that news. Within that hour, the protagonist Mrs. Mallard grieves over the loss of her husband, but also realizes a newfound freedom that she didn’t have being married. Chopin focuses on the theme of freedom, especially in terms of a woman’s role in marriage at the time the story was published (December 1894). In the short story “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin uses elements of the plot to evoke empathy and demonstrate how marriage affected a woman’s freedom in the late nineteenth century.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper

    1577 Words  | 4 Pages

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story that deals with many different issues that woman in the 19th century had to deal with on a daily basis. Some of these issues were within their control, but many of them were outside of the realm of control for women. The main point that I will focus on is how restricted societal roles can cause insanity. I will do this by deciphering the meaning of the "yellow wallpaper" and its symbolism. In my opinion, I believe that once we get a better understanding of the author's interest in this subject area and get a feel for life in the 19th century, then we will have a better understanding of the story.

    Read More

More about Bonds With the Land in The Grapes of Wrath

Open Document