The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, has many social class conflicts presented in the book. The main thing that Steinbeck concentrates on is the fact that if a man had land he had a name, he had a purpose. Though some men in the 1930’s were living in poverty and having to struggle to provide for their family, they still had a place, their land kept them grounded, they didn’t feel like they were ultimately losing everything. Steinbeck tells a story about a family that got their land taken away from them and their struggle to continue on with their lives.
Land is the most valued piece any man could have. If they didn’t have land then money was hard to earn because you had no crops. Steinbeck shows this in the first chapter of The Grapes of Wrath. “And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men-to feel whether this time the men would break.” (Steinbeck 6) This quote is after the men wake up to find their ruined corn form the dust storms. The men would become angry at his crops and the dust storms because if they didn’t get money soon they would lose their land. Though this does not apply to some men in the book, some man gave up, knowing that feeding their family was more important, that the land was already destroyed anyway. They took part in destroying the land, destroying people’s home. These men were described as part of the monster, the tractor, that they had no feeling for the land that was being plowed. “I got d**** tired of creeping for my dinner-and not getting it. I got a wife and kids. We got to eat. Three dollars a day, and it comes every day.” (Steinbeck 50) This quote is from the tractor driver that is plowing the fields for the bank. He is arguing with the tenant about not caring for the land that ...
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... here.” (Steinbeck 65) When his wife and kids left, he lost his property, and started living in abandon homes and crooks by the river to stay away from the bankers, he was to proud to leave his home and even when the banks took it away from him, he still stays and fights, causing the men that run the tractors a hard time.
With all of the challenges men had to face during this time, they still fought to keep their land, to keep who they are. Though there were many obstacles they had to overcome, they still fought with their heart and provided for their family as best as they could. Class conflict and money had the south in poverty in the 1930’s, with the dust bowl and crops not growing, bankers and men that had no honor to their home land, and debts piling up and people without homes. Luckily some families were able to overcome all of this and help each other out.
After the black Americans were freed from their slave masters they did not have ‘a cent in their pockets’ and ‘without a hut to shelter them’ . This obvious lack a home, and the monetary funds needed to support them [the freed slaves] and their families, together with the lack of widespread Government support meant that many slaves continued to live in poverty, and in many ways, they could have been better off (economically), had they been left in bondage . For this reason, many Southern slaves ‘had little choice but to remain as paid labourers or to become sharecroppers working on the land as before’ . Sharecropping, which generally involved the ex-slaves renting land, tools, and a house from a white landlord, working the land that is given to them, and then providing the landlord with one-half to two-thirds of the produce . ‘This system kept the black cotton producers in an inferior position’ , which means that while they were ‘officially free’; they were still stuck in the previous cycle of working for their previous masters, without hope of escape for a better life. While this is what most ex-slaves did, some, like Jourdan Anderson, who left the farm on which he, was prior to being freed, with his family, ‘would rather stay here and starve - and die’ than to have his girls ‘brought to shame by...
Steinbeck strikes at the fear in every man’s soul, with his portrayal of the poverty stricken life of the Joads as they travel from one stage of abandonment and what would seem like a helpless state to a journey of enduring perseverance. The Joads, Steinbeck’s creation in the Novel Grapes of Wrath is a large close-knit family living in Oklahoma during the “Dust Bowl” era. Steinbeck documents their journey beginning with their homelessness due to the crop failures to them surviving in a box car at the end of their journey. I think Steinbeck’ intention is to illustrate to the reader that being poor doesn’t always equate with being helpless. The Joads demonstrate this by their resilience to overcome homelessness, death, and prejudice.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is considered a classic novel by many in the literary field. The trials and tribulations of the Joad family and other migrants is told throughout this novel. In order to gain a perspective into the lives of "Oakies", Steinbeck uses themes and language of the troubling times of the Great Depression. Some of these aspects are critiqued because of their vulgarity and adult nature. In some places, The Grapes of Wrath has been edited or banned. These challenges undermine Steinbeck's attempts to add reality to the novel and are unjustified.
In Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family represents the thousands of migrant families who came to the west with the fantasy of obtaining a peaceful life after the Dust Bowl. Conversely they are faced with something resembling the epitome of human cruelty. Business owners and Californians do what they can to keep the Oklahoma families from breaching the invisible line that divides the privileged and the poor. This line, which only exists in the mind, causes people to loose their sense of humanity. The following quote describes the attitude of the wealthy: “And in the little towns pity for the sodden men changed to anger” (Steinbeck 434).
The Grapes of Wrath is a classic piece of American literature that provides an in depth analysis of the great dust bowl. The author, John Steinbeck, illustrated the everyday life of a migrant farmer from the perspective of the Joad family. By describing many important motifs, Steinbeck illustrates the many social and economic transformations that America experienced in the 1930’s. These themes include race, religion, gender, and class. The changes that occurred during this time period forever changed the American way of life.
Everyone has their treasured place, for Gil Maclean this was the farm. Gil Maclean “felt more present in the land than he did in his own flesh,”(Paragraph 4). Through this we can assume his land was more valuable to him than his own life, yet he still gives his property to Ronald. The author develops
The experiences that were most influential to Steinbeck were not at school, but instead came from his home and the countryside. He read his mother’s books, which included the titles
The two friends George and Lennie dream of their own piece of land with a ranch, so they can "live off the fatta the lan'" and just enjoy a their life. Steinbeck shows how not everyone can achieve the American Dream, and how everyone is not given the same opportunity and rights as everyone else. George and Lennie’s dream of owning a farm would allow them to have a better life for themselves, and it would offer them protection from an inhospitable world, aka the American Dream. Throughout the book, George realizes the impossibility of this dream, sadly proves that the bitter Crooks is right. such paradises of freedom, contentment, and safety are not to be found in this world. With saying this, Steinbeck exposes to readers that the American Dream is just an idea, and that everyone is not given the same chances in
...however, feels that to solve the plight of the Okies, land should be set aside for them to start their own small farms, since farming is all they know. He also suggests that local committees set wages and labor needs before the harvests to protect the rights of the workers and prevent them from being extorted (Pgs 58-59). While Steinbeck’s ideas made sense and had good intent, the grim reality still remained that the corporations controlled the agriculture industry and that they were going to save every nickel and dime they could, even if it meant a lower standard of living for the Okie. Today, we have unions that attempt to prevent things like this from happening again, but the plight of illegal immigrants demonstrates that the reality of this country’s need for cheap labor remains.
John Steinbeck wrote the The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 to rouse its readers against those who were responsible for keeping the American people in poverty. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Joad family, migrant farmers from Oklahoma traveling to California in search of an illusion of prosperity. The novel's strong stance stirred up much controversy, as it was often called Communist propaganda, and banned from schools due to its vulgar language. However, Steinbeck's novel is considered to be his greatest work. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and later became an Academy Award winning movie in 1940. The novel and the movie are both considered to be wonderful masterpieces, epitomizing the art of filmmaking and novel-writing.
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.
One final contradiction that Steinbeck uses in his essay that I have personally witnessed is, "In no country are more seeds and plants and equipment purchased, and less vegetables and flowers raised." It seems like every other week my neighbor two houses down brings home bags of seeds for plants, trees, fruits, and vegetables, yet their back yard still looks like all they plant are weeds. They even hire landscapers to come and work on their yard.
Steinbeck criticizes capitalism by portraying the banks and companies as insensitive monsters who, for the sake of profit, heartlessly force the farmers off their lands. When the Dust Bowl hits, the small farmers lose profit and could barely survive on the little they have, but since the bank “has to have profit all the time,” it callously forces the farmers off their land (pg 42). Capitalism, built on the idea of making profit, gets rid of anything that hinders financial gain. The bank could have a...
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.
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.