Ever wanted to use humility to accomplish something or anything. Well a man from The Grapes of Wrath made the perfect example. In the excerpt from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, there is man who needs to buy ten cents worth of bread, but Mae, a waitress who works at the diner, does not want to sell the bread because they need it. For further understanding of the book, John Steinbeck wrote this to depict how socialism and communism could benefit the migrant farm workers in California. I believe the man's constant tone of humility influences Mae's behavior to change towards him and his two little boys from selfishness to sympathy.
At the beginning of the excerpt, the man and his sons arrive at the diner with “curious humility.” This type of humility means a strange and unexplainable way of humility. When the man arrives at the diner he asks Mae, “Could you see your way to sell us a loaf of bread, ma'am?” The man clearly just wants a loaf of bread. Mae responds, “This ain't a grocery store. We got bread to make san'widges.” Mae's behavior towards them is rude as if she knows the...
Misfit to Madonna: Rose of Sharon’s Transformation When Rose of Sharon is first introduced in The Grapes of Wrath, we learn that she is expecting a child from her new husband, Connie Rivers. She is described as a mystical being whose primary concern is the well-being of her child, even at the almost ridiculously early stage of her pregnancy at the start of the novel. It is this concern that illustrates Rose of Sharon’s transformation from misfit to Madonna through the Joad’s journey. Rose of Sharon incessantly asks Ma Joad if “it’ll hurt the baby” throughout the majority of the novel, and adopts an attitude of superiority over others with her precious possession. She all but refuses to help the family pack the truck for California for fear of disturbing her fetus, even though she knows her help is needed.
While many people may have good intentions, reality is harsh and does not always work in the favour of those who wish to do good. This jarring reality causes for unexpected outcomes that can take anyone by surprise. In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, sticking together and being there for one another is a key objective of the Joad’s. Reality ends up forcing its way in, illustrating that despite one’s ambitions, reality can deter one’s goals.
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. He had a pretty average childhood with a supportive family and a decent education. While growing up his mother, Olive Hamilton, was a major factor in his education, since she was a schoolteacher and made it her duty to educate him. His mother most likely was the reason he developed a love of reading and literature and ended up going to Stanford. In his child there were only two major events that affected his writing. These were when he worked on a ranch with migrant workers, and when his father’s business failed and the family was temporarily thrust into poverty. These two events most likely sparked his interest in the poor lives of the migrant workers. His experiences on the ranch taught him about the harsh and impoverished lives of the migrant workers and his experience of being in poverty enabled him to understand what life is like when one is poor, as the migrant workers were. This understanding inspired some of his most famous writings such as: Of Mice and Men, In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath. These experiences also allowed him to add a sense of realism to the stories. After graduating from his public high school in 1919 Steinbeck went to Stanford. He went there for 5 years before dropping out without a degree and moving to New York. The following years were highly tumultuous for Steinbeck and he held many odd jobs while trying to get his writing published. In 1935 he finally got his first big break when his critically acclaimed novel, Tortilla Flats, was published. After this he became quite successful and well known although the skill in his writing seems to fall after WWII. After researching his life I decided to focus on using his most famous n...
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.
The novel Grapes of Wrath was one of the first monumental American stories because of the setting, which is the great depression. It followed the working class of America, which at the time it came out was when the working class was becoming more common then the upper class. The whole point of the novel was to show the people who were the workers of America’s economy struggle deeply. The readers of the text appreciated the realistic factors of the novel, and Tom Joade was a great example for those who wanted to help others. He was someone who only cared about others safety, and even though he had done some bad things in the past, he was still a caring man. The moral behind Tom’s character is that even if someone has a troubled past, it does not matter about their past, but instead it matters about their actions in the present.
Steinbeck's relationship to the transcendentalists [Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman] was pointed out soon after The Grapes of Wrath appeared by Frederick I. Carpenter, and as the thirties fade into history, Jim Casy with his idea of the holiness of all men and the unreality of sin seems less a product of his own narrowly doctrinaire age than a latter-day wanderer from the green village of Concord to the dry plains of the West.
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.
When facing a conflict, one mostly tries to find a solution that will benefit him rather than accommodate everyone. It’s much more satisfactory to have everything go one’s way than having to compromise with another. This selfish mentality is something that repeatedly takes place in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, where many characters act out of their own self-interest. However, throughout The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, the individuals often commit acts of true altruism. Instead of always being on the lookout for themselves, they often make sacrifices for others. The Great Gatsby’s selfish, egocentric acts contrast with the altruistic, selfless acts in The Grapes of Wrath through demonstrations of self sacrifice, greed, and the ability to persevere and help others in the direst of situations.
Prejudice is a strong word. It is the kind of word that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. One of Steinbeck's themes in the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is the prejudice against the migrant workers by the financially established Californians. Steinbeck provides four clear examples of prejudice; the man whose children died of starvation, the fishing story, the California police officer and the history of the Californians.
In John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family and the changing world in which they live is portrayed from a naturalistic point of view. Steinbeck characterizes the Joads and their fellow migrants as simple, instinct-bound creatures who are on an endless search for paradise (Owens 129). The migrants and the powers which force them to make their journey--nature and society--are frequently represented by animals. The Joads, when they initially leave home, are a group of simplistic, animal-like people who barely understand or even realize their plight, but as the story progresses, they begin to grow and adapt to their new circumstances. They evolve from a small, insignificant group of creatures with no societal consciousness into a single member of a much larger family--society.
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
When someone betrays us, our first response as humans is anger. But anger only gives you a split second of power and fuels bad decisions. It forces you into a corner and makes you easily angry. Instead of turning to anger, we can learn to understand other’s perspective before taking actions we will regret later on.
In literature as in life, people often find that they must make difficult choices in order to survive. The reasons behind their decisions and the results of their subsequent actions affect our opinion of them. In the Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, the author portrayed situations where two main characters became involved. The nature of their choices, the reasons behind their decisions, and the results that followed affected them greatly. However, the choices that they made were surmounted successfully. Ma Joad and Tom Joad are two strong characters who overcame laborious predicaments. Their powerful characteristics helped to encourage those that were struggling.
Steinbeck's intercalary chapters in The Grapes of Wrath have nothing to do with the Joads or other characters of the novel, but help describe the story in different terms. They are similar to poems, offering different viewpoints of the migration, and clarifying parts of the story that the reader might not understand. An excellent example of this use can be seen in chapter 21, where an examination of the attitudes of migrant Okies and the residents of California reveals the changing nature of land ownership among the changing population of California and gives greater meaning to the fierce hostility that the Joads meet in California.
Labor Unions are not new to the world; in the past, they were simply known by many different names. For instance Guilds, a group of people that band together to protect their goods and services were predominant in medieval Europe and carried over into the American colonies in the eighteenth century. Labor strikes were also prominent in the Northeast, happening as early as the late sixteen hundreds (“A History”). However, labor unions were not as prevalent until after the Civil War when the National Labor Union and the Knights of Labor were founded to combat rapid industrialization. These unions slowly grew larger as conditions grew worse for workers across America. They were constantly held back by pro-business governments, like those of the Gilded Age, and the large corporations that would do anything to make a larger profit. In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath the Joad family travels to California to escape the Dust Bowl and the stranglehold of large corporations. When they reach California they realize that the prospects in the West are not any better than