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Grandpa’s Grapes
(An Analysis of Grandpa Joad of Grapes of Wrath)
John Steinbeck once stated: “If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do 'll make him feel rich.” The classic text Grapes of Wrath contains several characters with a considerable amount of depth. Characters like Tom and Ma Joad are usually celebrated for their symbolism and dialogue. I feel as though Grandpa Joad is a highly underrated character in Steinbeck’s text Grapes of Wrath.
Tom Joad’s grandfather has a deep appreciation for the land he lives on. Individuals that grew up in the times of the Great Depression often find themselves holding onto anything that has their name to it. Grandpa says in the scene where his farm is being taken away: “It's my dirt! Eh-heh! No good, but it's - it's mine, all mine.” Grandpa does not care that the land is no longer fertile. All he cares about is the sentimentality of hi...
Al Joad is a fairly skinny guy of medium built who starts out being a
New beginnings and new land, while made out to seem as beacons of hope and chances for prosperity, are complete opposites; new beginnings offer neither success nor happiness, but rather more failures and recurring sorrows. John Steinbeck and Jack Hodgins introduce the idea of new beginnings and settlements just as they emphasize the importance of togetherness as a community and a family in The Grapes of Wrath and Broken Ground. However, it is important to consider that these new beginnings were involuntary and rather forced due to situational circumstances. These circumstances caused drastic changes in the lives of the characters, changes that ultimately led them towards a downward spiral. In both novels, change in location helped advertise new beginnings as a chance for a new, improved lifestyle, which turned out to be a mere lie. The “promised land” was simply a hoax, which they would later realize, as it left them with nothing more than the broken pieces of their woven dreams.
In Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad is one of the main characters in the “The Grapes of Wrath,” years ago Tom was taken into jail because he got into a drunken fight and killed his attacker with a shovel. He has served his time and is now getting a different outlook on the things in life and is realizing everything happens for a reason.
The Joad family members were facing hardships from the beginning. Before the journey, Tom Joad had been in prison and that was a downer to everyone. In the scenes of overcoming this problem, Tom was released and his family was so excited and full of joy to see him. Before they could celebrate too much, they found themselves having to leave the land that most of them were born on, raised on and labored for. They decided that as shady as it was to be forced off their own land, the drought had shattered any hopes of prospering from it anyway. With the hope of a better life out in California and a flyer that said pickers needed, they set out for the proclaimed promised land.
In conclusion the Grapes of Wrath is a literary masterpiece that portrays the struggles of man as he overcomes the adversity of homelessness, death, and the wrath of prejudice. Steinbeck fully explores each faucet coherently within the boundaries of the Joad family’s trials and
The Grapes of Wrath is a very interesting novel. Throughout the novel, the author does not provide a lot of descriptions of the Joad’s family characteristics; however, the action of those characters speak for itself. One of the most astonishing character that I find really interesting is, Ma Joad. After reading the book, I felt so sad and depressed of what she had to go through in her life. While reading it, I compared my Mother to Ma Joad, I think they went through the same journey, not physically, but emotionally. We grew up in a really poor country, Cambodia, and we went through a similar situation. Ma Joad played a really important role in this family movement, without her presence in the Joad’s family, I do not think the family could carry on their trip. She is the glue to the family, she is the one who is holding on the faith of being togetherness in the family. Her character shifts throughout the novel. Ma Joad first started as domesticated house women, does not involve in decision making, and is subordinated to Pa Joad. In chapter 10, while Ma Joad was salting the meat in the kitchen, Casey who used to be a preacher at the church nearby, offered in helping Ma Joad in salting the meat; however, she refused, claiming it “Its women works” (Steinbeck, P. 107).Women were not honored to be independence, it is repeatedly enforced by the society that these belief of women subordinated to men is a right thing, eventually glued in women head. Ma Joad is a soft women, but her character changes as time goes by. Every little thing constantly worries her. I think that is pretty much for every mothers, fears of anything that could separate the family awa...
The exposition establishes the loss of identity, as the Dust Bowl forcibly removes the Joads from their homestead. An established family of farmers, the Joad men take their identity from their relationship to the earth, and the consequent benefits they may reap from it. But when this relationship is severed by the drought and their land is lost to the banks, the men lose their identity for “if [the men own] a little property, that property is him, it’s part of him, and it’s like him”. Land, once representing plenty and abundance now represents desolation and destruction; this juxtaposition shows that the Joads can no longer define their identity by the land, their connection with their home, with what is familiar. Losing the land means the Joad men lose an essential facet of what defines them – their masculine position in the household. Being the sole providers, as the only working members of the family, the men held a significant amount of power within their households; the men were the ones with full financial control, and the only ones able to keep the family from sliding into poverty. Pa Joad is aware that the pressure to provide is on him, thus, his family’s success and survival is dependent upon him. The drought restricts his ability to provide, thus he must redefine an essential component of his identity. As such, Steinbeck conveys the idea that identity is
Through such hardships as the Depression, the Dust Bowl summers, and trying to provide for their own families, which included the search for a safe existence, we find the story of the Joad's. The Joad's are the main family in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, which he created to give voice to the hundreds of families that found themselves at their absolute rock bottom during the Great Depression of the 20th Century in America.
Tom Joad from Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath is a prime example of a person whose morals and spiritual growth cannot be restricted by the law or any other limiting factor for long. Throughout the novel he develops from a man only interested in his own independent personal desires and needs to one who is devoted to his family and sacrifices his own personal comfort for the benefit of the family. At the novel's end Tom is continuing Jim Casy's generous work of uniting the poor hand laborers against the rich oppressive landowners who are starving the poor with low wages. Tom's concept of family grows with his work uniting the poor to encompass all of humanity.
In The Grapes of Wrath, Stienbeck illustrates such powerful images using his own values. When the Joad family starts deciding to move to California for a better life, the story begins. Tom comes home from prison and the family is reunited. The hopes of all are refreshed and the move seems to be a good idea. And here we have one of Steinbecks greatest value, the family or the group, and the ties that lie within it. This value is seen through many different examples in this novel.
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.
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.
As they are on the road heading towards California, they notice that grandpa’s health is declining terribly. As they are on the long road to California from their Oklahoma farm, they keep close eyes on Grandpa’s health, when they get to a place where they can rest and take a break, tom breaks his probation terms and becomes illegal to be with them, and then Grampa Joad passes away in the middle of the night (“Grapes”). As they lose one family member, they realize the reason he had died was the medication they gave him, so that they could began on their journey to California to live a better life.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck had many comparisons from the movie and the book. In 1939, this story was to have some of the readers against the ones that kept the American people in poverty held responsible for their actions. This unique story was about the Joad’s family, who were migrant workers looking for a good decent job. They were also farmers from Oklahoma that are now striving to find some good work and success for their family in California. This novel was one of Steinbeck’s best work he has ever done. It was in fact an Academy Award movie in 1940. Both the movie and the novel are one of Steinbeck’s greatest masterpieces on both the filmmaking and the novel writing. Both the novel and film are mainly the same in the beginning of the story and towards the end. There were some few main points that Steinbeck took out from the book and didn’t mention them in the movie. “The Grapes of Wrath is a
In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, a fictitious migrant family, the Joads, travel west in search of a new life away from the tragedies of the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma. Along the way, Steinbeck adds a variety of minor characters with whom the Joads interact. Steinbeck created these minor characters to contrast with the Joad’s strong will power and to reflect man’s fear of new challenges, and to identify man’s resistance to change. Three minor characters who fulfill this role are Muley Graves, Connie Rivers, and the tractor driver.