Many Questions and Few Answers in The Grapes of Wrath
The book The Grapes of Wrath focuses on a particular section of America called the "Dust Bowl" during the early nineteen thirties. During this time, when tenant farming was a way of life for so many Oklahomans, there came a drought which drastically cut down production of crops and forced the bank to evict the tenants in order to cut losses. The problem may seem straightforward at first, and maybe it is, but the cause of the problem should not be simplified. Naturally, the three participants in this disaster, the tenants, the bank and the workers, have their own separate, and logical, points of view. Who is right? In the larger picture, events occurring during this time period involving banks and corporations are primitive examples of the widespread greedy capitalism infused in our modern society.
One cannot think of the tenants of these farms without feeling some sort of pity or sympathy, because they had no concept of banks or land ownership. To them, land was theirs if they lived, struggled, and eventually died on it; not just because of a flimsy sheet of paper in hand. "My pa come here fifty years ago. An' I ain't a-goin'."(60), was the sentiment expressed by Muley Graves and felt by many Oklahomans when first ordered off their farms. Some reacted quite violently, threatening to shoot anyone who came onto their land with a tractor to tear down their house, but when the tractor came and one of their friends drove it, they laid down their guns in submission. "Who gave you orders? I'll go after him. He's the one to kill."(49), said one disgruntled farmer. "You're wrong. He got his orders from the bank." the driver replied. The farmer also found out that the bank got their orders from the East and wondered in exasperation, "But where does it stop? Who can we shoot?"(49) Basically, the tenants were cut off from their livelihood and without hope since they weren't even sure whom they could kill or what person to talk to in order to keep the land.
The Bank. Who is a bank? Is it a person? A physical thing? Couldn't it see that it was causing such suffering and despair? Although the heads of the bank could sympathize with the plight of the tenants, they felt that for some reason, the eviction could not be stopped.
When times get tough, many people turn away from everyone and everything. It must be part of human nature to adopt an independent attitude when faced with troubles. It is understandable because most people do not want to trouble their loved ones when they are going through problems, so it is easier to turn away than stick together. Maybe their family is going through a rough patch and they reason they would be better off on their own. This path of independence and solitude may not always be the best option for them or their family, though. Often times it is more beneficial for everyone to work through the problem together. It is not always the easiest or most desirable option, but most times it is the most efficient and it will get results in the long run. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck makes this point very clear through several characters. Many characters throughout
The opening scene’s setting gives a premise to the overall gloomy and dusty lifestyles of the Okies. The whole time period is already gloomy from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, but the description of the bland Oklahoma landscape is sad. Steinbeck even wrote about dust like it was an ominous homewrecker. Dust and the wind and the elements in general are given all of the power in this chapter and in future chapters. Such dominant influence of nature suggests the family structure of the Joads and other Okies to be unstable. The environment governs the family, making them move, causing them to seek jobs due to poor land and subsequent lack of work.
Throughout the novel, The Grapes of Wrath there are intercalary chapters. The purpose of these chapters are to give the readers insight and background on the setting, time, place and even history of the novel. They help blend the themes, symbols, motifs of the novel, such as the saving power of family and fellowship, man’s inhumanity to man, and even the multiplying effects of selfishness. These chapters show the social and economic crisis flooding the nation at the time, and the plight of the American farmer becoming difficult. The contrast between these chapters helps readers look at not just the storyline of the Joad family, but farmers during the time and also the condition of America during the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck uses these chapters to show that the story is not only limited to the Joad family,
The Joad’s were facing many conflicts and in the process of losing their house. They heard there was going to be work in California and wanted to take the risk and move out there to find a job to provide. The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression were pretty huge topics in history and the novel about The Grapes of Wrath had some pretty raw details about their journey and similar to both histories. The Joad family pushed each other to have a better life in California and did everything they could to have a job to provide and eat, and mainly survive to live another day. In the novel, the beginning, the Joad family faced and struggled with nature, dust nature, just like the people that experienced this during the Dust Bowl. The people in the Southern plains dealt with a huge dust storm and the Joad family were also faced with this storm but struggled from these dust storms because of no work. No work means you can’t eat and
In the twenty-fifth chapter of his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck presents the reader with a series of vivid images, accompanied by a series of powerful indictments. Steinbeck effectively uses both the potent imagery and clear statements of what he perceives as fact to convey his message. This short chapter offers a succinct portrayal of one of the major themes of the larger work. Namely, the potential bounty of nature corrupted and left to rot by a profit-driven system, a system that ultimately fails.
In the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck the author uses excessive profanity, religion, and migrants to show the hard times family’s had to go through in the 1930’s. Most people believe that Steinbeck novel is too inappropriate for high school students because of its content. This novel should be banned from the high school curriculum.
In the Grapes of Wrath, and in the present time, the general public has set the less fortunate apart from themselves without even realizing it. “I’m seeing more apathy on the part of people. I think people used to feel badly. And now, I think people feel bothered. That’s a dangerous shift.” (Cannon 1) What she means is that at one point in time we used to care for the homeless. We used to try and help them out. Now we don’t care and we just want to get rid of them. This is very similar to the situation in the Grapes of Wrath. At first they wanted thousands of people to come and work, but when they actually started coming, the general public wanted to get rid of them. “And the men of the towns and of the soft suburban county gathered to defend themselves; and the reassured themselves that they were good and the invaders were bad, as a man must do before he fights. They said, these Okies are dirty and ignorant. They’re degenerate sexual maniacs. These Okies are thieves. They’ll steal anything. They’ve got no sense of property rights.” (G.O.W. 363) This was the general publics’ feeling towards the Okies, even though they asked them to come there in the first place. What the people don’t understand is that the Okies are being forced to steal and the general public is the one who is forcing them. In the Grapes of Wrath, and in the present time we, the general public have shunned the less fortunate. It isn’t that we want them to be poor, but we have a hard time fitting in with them.
As you approach your home, you realize the empty barn and the crooked house sagging close to the barren ground. A closer view unveils an empty, dried up well, an emaciated cat limping past the caved in porch, a tree with "leaves tattered and scraggly as a molting chicken" (23), a stack of rotting untouched lumber and cracked, jagged window panes reflecting the desolate land abroad. This description portrays the Joad family's home suffering from abandonment when they leave their country home life for better opportunities in the west. Steinbeck portrays the plight of the migrant Joad family from Oklahoma to California in search of a better life during the Great Depression in The Grapes of Wrath.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck, which focuses on an Oklahoman family that is evicted from their farm during an era of depression caused by the Dust Bowl. The Joad family alongside thousands of other refugees (also affected by the dirty thirties) migrates west towards California seeking employment and a new home. John Steinbeck’s purpose for writing this novel was to inform his audience of how many of their fellow Americans were being mistreated and of the tribulations they faced in order to attain regain what they once had. As a result, The Grapes of Wrath triggered its audience’s sympathy for the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers and their families.
John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is one of the most influential books in American History, and is considered to be his best work by many. It tells the story of one family’s hardship during the Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. The Joads were a hard-working family with a strong sense of togetherness and morals; they farmed their land and went about their business without bothering anyone. When the big drought came it forced them to sell the land they had lived on before anyone could remember. Their oldest son, Tom, has been in jail the past four years and returns to find his childhood home abandoned.
“Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but its jus' in their head.” (Steinbeck) The Grapes of Wrath is most often categorized as an American Realist novel. It was written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. As a result of this novel, Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and prominently cited the novel when he won the Nobel Prize a little over twenty years after the text’s publication. This text follows the Joad family through the Great Depression. It begins in Oklahoma, watching as the family is driven from their home by drought and economic changes. Within the introduction of the novel the living conditions is described, “Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: The walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it.” (Grapes, 1) This novel is and will remain one of the most significant novels of the Great Depression. Despite its controversial nature it is timeless. In fact, the ending of this text is one of the most controversial pieces of literature written during the time period, and has never accurately made its way into film. The ending to John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath is the most significant portion of the novel due to its historical accuracy as well as its message about the American spirit.
A lot of classical movies in Hollywood connect the content of the films to the reality of the status quo. In the early 30’s, after two industrial revolutions, technology has improved rapidly. It leads to excess labor costs. Big companies had been established, but unemployed people became more and more. In Oklahoma, the bulldozers of big companies destroyed hundreds of families’ houses. The farmers who lived on the land for five more decades had to leave this land in order to survive. This movie is about the director’s desire to criticize the party who lead to the Great Depression and feel pity for the working class. In the movie The Grapes of Wrath, the representative figure are Tom’s family and friends, they left their home to California
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