California Owners In John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

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In John Steinbeck’s book “Grapes of Wrath”, he doesn’t present all California owners as heartless, cruel, and exploitative of the poor. There are at least two California owners in the story that are kind to the Joad’s. The fact that there are amiable locals gives the Joads some hope on making a living in California, even though the harsh locals make their lives more difficult. While traveling in California, the Joads family meet many types of people. Some of the residents were quite rude and called them offensive names, such as, Okies, when they stopped to take a break at a camping ground. There were others that were kind, but felt they could only secretly help them because they feared the anger of the mean residents or that they may not have a farm the next year. The Joads met many people on their trip, some helping them more than others. …show more content…

But there were some people who still cared for the well being of others. For example, Tom was eating with a father and son at the government camp, they talked about the guy they worked for and how he was a “nice frien’ly fella to work for”. This man allowed Tom to work in the ditch and even informed him of important information about the deputies, even though it could have risked his farm. Another example is when a local man with 20 acres of cotton asked the Joads to help him pick his cotton. This man was fair because he didn’t rig any of the scales and payed them 90 cents a

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