“In the evening a strange thing happened…” (Steinbeck, 192). In chapter 17 of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the reader witnesses the unity of the masses. As all the families gather in a camp after a long day driving, there is some sudden connection between the strangers. Steinbeck turns giant quantities (hundreds of people/twenty families) into one family, one struggle, and one dream for a better life. The word “one” is utilized to link these families to each other. A single guitar is able to gather a crowd men and women in a single song, and the birth of a single child is enough to amaze an entire camp. Quantity is reoccurring this text, but is very trivial in the scheme of things. The number of people seems irrelevant to the greater
Intercalary Chapters The use of Intercalary chapters is a complex technique. Writers use this structure to break up the plot with separate excerpts inserted into the novel. Intercalary chapters help to give the reader background knowledge or important information. This can help further develop the novels impact on readers. John Steinbeck displayed this strategy throughout The Grapes of Wrath, interrupting the Joad family’s journey with chapters describing other aspects of the novel’s setting.
Throughout the course of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck applies repetition conveying an urgent tone that demonstrates how the Dust Bowl threatened
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
In the 1930s, America’s Great Plains experienced a disastrous drought causing thousands of people to migrate west. As their land was devastated by the Dust Bowl, deprived farmers were left with few options but to leave. The Grapes of Wrath depicts the journey of the Joads, an Oklahoma based family which decides to move to California in search of better conditions. Coming together as thirteen people at the start, the Joads will undertake what represents both a challenge and their only hope. Among them are only four women embodying every ages: the Grandma, the Mother and her two daughters, the pregnant Rose of Sharon and the young Ruthie. Appearing in Chapter Eight the mother, who is referred to as “Ma”, holds a decisive role in Steinbeck’s novel. She is, along with her son Tom (the main character of the book), present from the early stage of the story until its very end. We will attempt to trace back her emotional journey (I) as well as to analyze its universal aspects and to deliver an overall impression on the book (II).
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,
A popular literary technique that can be found in a number of literary works is the biblical allusion. John Steinbeck perfects this technique in his novel The Grapes of Wrath by introducing a character who is symbolic of Jesus Christ. This character, Jim Casy, not only shares initials with this biblical figure, but he also grows thoughout the novel as a speaker, a mediator, an organizer, and, most remarkably, a martyr.
In the 1930’s, there was many inconvenient catastrophes going on such as the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Many families migrated to California hoping to find better conditions. In the excerpt from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, we are introduced to a man going through the situation of moving to California. He is trying to purchase ten cents worth of bread for him and his family, but isn’t quite able to accomplish that due to the stubborn waitress named Mae. Humility is shown in the excerpt when the man constantly shows his humbleness towards Mae. The man’s “insistent” and “inflexible” humility changes Mae’s behavior into becoming more sympathetic and less stubborn by the way he continued to be humble and persistent making her realize the difficulty of his situation.
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
Although Steinbeck argues for collective action to achieve specific goals, only the most unperceptive critics continue to argue that he is a collectivist in either philosophy or politics. Throughout his work he decries the mindless indoctrination of the totalitarians and maintains that only through reflection upon his bitter experience can learn the value of acting in concert with others for the relief of emergency conditions -- like the flood at the end of The Grapes of Wrath -- so that the individual may subsequently be free to realize his own potentialities. Nothing better illustrates Steinbeck's concept of social organization than the pictures in Chapter Seventeen of The Grapes of Wrath of the world that is created each night a people come together, and disappears the next morning when they separate.
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.
The differences between selfishness and selflessness are strong throughout The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Everywhere the Joad family goes there is always someone to either push them into the dirt or give them a hand out of the dirt. This happened far and wide, people can be greedy, selfish, and rapacious. It’s in our nature, but even in desperate times when people have a right to be selfish, some will find the will in their heart to aid those who can’t help themselves.
Sherman Alexie also learned the importance to read and write as Malcolm X. Alexie did not have the privilege to be taught by someone to learn and write. Alexie’s family as most of Native Indian were poor and lives in a reservations. However, his desire and effort made him capable to learn by himself when he was only 3 years old. He started his auto-education by taking superman comic books and assuming what the book said. This way helped to achieve his goal to learn how to read and write. When he was in kindergarten he was reading “ Grapes of Wrath” and the rest of the classmate were struggling to read easy books. This was very important for him that he became a writer.
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, transition is defined as a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, style to another, or simply just change. The book Grapes of Wrath have displayed many transitions by the characters and the society that is portrayed in the novel. The two characters that made significant transitions in the book are Tom Joad and Ma Joad. Tom transitions over the course of the novel from an ex-convict that had killed a man, independent, stubborn, and lives his life day by day to exhibiting thoughtfulness, a person with high morals, and compassion. In the beginning of the novel, Ma Joad was just a mother figure and care giver in the family, but later on she slowly begins to become the center for strength and the decision maker in the family when Pa Joad was not effectively able to assume that role. Another significant transition in the novel is the changing in society that
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.
Jim Casy’s alienation allows him to isolate specific people in society who appear purely good within this downgrade society, as he travels with the Joad family whom he believes are good people. Trying to form salvation for the migrant workers. Learning about culture, he depicts flaws, as he’s “been walkin’around’ in the country. Ever’body’s askin’ that. What we comin’ to? Seems to me we don’t never come to nothin’. Always on the way. Always goin’ and goin’.” (127-128). Steinbeck would use Casy’s sermons as a biblical allusion to Jesus to reinforce the theme of salvation. Later Jim Casy would finally realize that he has found his place in society after living from alienation for so long, with learning more about the Joad family and his experience