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Negative effects of the dust bowl
Negative effects of the dust bowl
Effects of the dust bowl
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In “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck portrays the struggles of the Joad family during the events of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. The family was forced to migrate to California for a better life, due to the horrible conditions put upon them. Consequent to arriving in California, the Joad family was exposed to the harsh living environment of migrants. This puts their previous thoughts about luxurious California in conflict. As they continue to travel in California, their expectations continue to decline as the lack of housing becomes almost nonexistent. From the years of the book “The Grapes of Wrath”, the lack of affordable housing is still ongoing. This crisis is still applicable due to California’s housing problem of preventing …show more content…
This issue affects both the Joad family and many migrants, as they are both searching for proper living conditions. Before migrating to California, the Joad family, especially Ma Joad, imagined to live in a little white house surrounded by orange trees. Their dreams later become a false reality as the family discovers the impossibility. However, instead of being completely homeless, they come upon the town Hooverville. This town was created specifically towards unemployed migrants shelter. Migrants came together to construct temporary homes and creating a whole new community for themselves. The Joads join the community until they realize Hooverville was only going to be temporary. The police and many landowners resented Hooverville; the way migrants were able to create a suitable community. Soon the Joad family and migrants were forced to leave Hooverville sand continue on their job searching journey. The Joad family never had a chance to settle down at a decent living space. They were always forced to continue traveling due to the lack of money they possessed. Throughout this book, Steinbeck shows the poor conditions other families lived in, as the Joad family passed them at the edge of the roads. In the different living conditions the Joad family and other migrants lived in, they all struggled to find somewhere suitable for both their family and health. The strict law …show more content…
The Bay Area has one of the largest and least amount of sheltered homeless population in the country. She was surprised to the immense amount of people sleeping on the streets every night. It is deeply dehumanizing living in horrible conditions streets provide. It is also disheartening for anyone to live in such despair. Every homeless person she interviewed, stated how they just wanted to be treated like human beings. The homeless in the eyes of the government are looked down upon and seen as unimportant along side of middle and upper class. Amy also explains the disturbing logic of how California is a successful and rich state, yet the government is not anything to help the homelessness. Instead, they are deteriorating human rights standards. In San Francisco alone, 7,500 people are homeless due to the recent influx of housing prices. Most of the people living on the streets are living with a “structural trauma”. People have either lost their job, evicted by landlords, or can’t afford housing. Residents of San Francisco are continuing to find ways to prevent homelessness from increasing and to find proper housing for
Al Joad is a fairly skinny guy of medium built who starts out being a
Steinbeck meets his standard by celebrating the migrant workers’ drive and sense of community in the face of the Great Depression. The Joad family and many others, are dedicated to conquering all odds: “[t]hus they changed their social life–changed as in the whole universe only man can change” (Steinbeck 196). There are no other options available for these tenant families than to take the trek to California in hopes of finding work. The fears they once had about droughts and floods now lingered with
Social issues are difficult to write about because they are simplistic and problematic. Johnson doesn’t say the homeless issue in Los Angeles is good or bad. The story describes the characters leaning more towards bad, but never directly states this. Johnson explores the characters reactions to the issue. From this story, we learn it is easier for this particular family and society to ignore an issue rather than address it.
or fear." Thus, if Ma acts as if everything is all right, then the family
How does California seem to modern America? Violent. Crowded. Filled with bad people. People who live in cities and have lost touch with the earth. These people are portrayed in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath as Californians. Yet, people from the Midwest flocked to California seeking prosperity and opportunity. Their land had been taken by the banks and turned into cotton fields. They were left homeless and desperate. These people sought to work in the fields where they could eat a peach or sit under a tree to relax.
The Joad’s were facing many conflicts and in the process of losing their house. They heard there was going to be work in California and wanted to take the risk and move out there to find a job to provide. The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression were pretty huge topics in history and the novel about The Grapes of Wrath had some pretty raw details about their journey and similar to both histories. The Joad family pushed each other to have a better life in California and did everything they could to have a job to provide and eat, and mainly survive to live another day. In the novel, the beginning, the Joad family faced and struggled with nature, dust nature, just like the people that experienced this during the Dust Bowl. The people in the Southern plains dealt with a huge dust storm and the Joad family were also faced with this storm but struggled from these dust storms because of no work. No work means you can’t eat and
Character arcs, a primary method of keeping the reader’s emotions tied to the novel and its characters in order to maintain their interest. This method of character development is often implored by writers such as John Steinbeck; this can be observed in his novel The Grapes Of Wrath. An example of such a character arc is Tom Joad’s spiritual and emotional development, as he gradually becomes Jim Casy’s spiritual heir and student. Fully understanding this dramatic development is started by one analyzing three different stages that Tom undergoes throughout his life; starting with his philosophy and actions as a young child, when he finally meets Jim Casy and the acceptance of the new way of thinking, concluded by when he decides to act on the
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 National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) has created a federal policy design to aid the homeless and spread awareness of the situation. Their main concern was to enhance the ability of certain programs to prevent and end homelessness for low-income families. Providing cheap and affordable housing is obviously a major factor in helping to curb homelessness, yet it is still inadequate in dealing with the root issues (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2012). However, these policies are not making any progress because homelessness is still on the rise. All through the San Fernando Valley there is a considerable lack of space in hostels and housing accommodations where a homeless person can find shelter. There are waiting lists that may go on for months or even years, with little hope of getting shorter. The Los Angeles County needs to invest more money on permanent supportive housing, such as houses and apartments, for the homeless so that they can live better
He learns his family has moved in with his uncle John and decides to travel a short distance to see them. He arrives only to learn they are packing up their belongings and moving to California, someplace where there is a promise of work and food. This sets the Joad family off on a long and arduous journey with one goal: to survive. In this novel Steinbeck set forth with the intention of raising awareness to the general public of the difficulties and injustices these migrants faced during this period in time. It exposed the methods of the California farmer to use the migrants in order to lower their costs and make their profit margin higher. How they starved and cheated the poor, working man, in order to keep him desperate for food and too weak to protest.
In the beginning of the novel, Steinbeck describes the devastating Dust bowl that settles “on the corn, on roofs,” and blankets “the weeds and trees” (Steinbeck 3). His use of imagery instantly installs the picture of destruction into the reader’s mind. The Dust Bowl is the beginning of the hardships that are to come for the migrants. There is an anecdote of a turtle who struggles to get to the other side of the road. The turtle struggles up the embankment like the families struggled to get to California. When he was trying to cross the highway he was nearly hit twice, which is similar to the business owners and Californians running over the Oklahoma people. This small chapter symbolizes the entire journey of the Joad family, in turn it symbolizes the journey of all the Oklahoma people. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Homelessness in the United States has been an important subject that the government needs to turn its attention to. There has been announced in the news that the number of the homeless people in many major cities in the United States has been increasing enormously. According to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that there was an estimation of 83,170 individuals have experienced chronic homelessness on the streets of the United States’ streets and shelters on only a single night of January 2015, which is a small decrease of only 1% from the previous year (People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, n.d.). The United States must consider this subject that most of the people underestimate it and not pay attention
“Homeless is more than being without a home. It is tied into education needs, food, security; health issues both mental and physical, employment issues, etc. Don’t forget the whole picture.” (“Boxed In” 2005 pg. 108)
Homelessness is increasing more every year. In fact, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over 640,000 people experience homelessness every night. (Hunger and Homelessness in North America) By definition, the homeless are groups of people that do not have a home. They can be people who are mentally ill, unemployed, veterans, or even children born into unfortunate families. Since they have nowhere to go, the homeless usually live inside abandoned buildings, in the streets, or in makeshift homes, such as a cardboard box or homemade tent. Although some work to find a decent home, many still suffer from depression or are psychically disabled and cannot work. (Overview of Homelessness in America) These people do not choose to be homeless, instead they become homeless due to a series of unfortunate events; namely losing their source of income or becoming homeless by birth. One instance of this occurred in the life of Hazel Washington. Hazel was fleeing an abusive relationship when she moved in with her relative and his girlfriend, but she was not told about their impending eviction. Because of this, her roommates took everything she owned an...
The population of Los Angeles continues to grow each day because people perceive that the opportunities will improve their economic and social well-being. Most of them get good jobs manufacturing, business and the government giving them the ability to provide for themselves and their children. Those who are not lucky enough do not realise their goals and depend on the government and the society for basic needs. The effort of the city and the government to house the homeless cannot take the pressure of the rising number of the homeless without the support of the society. Los Angeles in the United State’s largest urban and has the highest number of homeless people making the task of housing its population next to impossible without participation