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Papers on the great depression
The grapes of wrath by john steinbeck JIM CASEY
John steinbeck the grape of wrath essay
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The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, goes through the telling of the time of the Dust Bowl. Times were hard back in the era of the 1930s, the Great Depression was just beginning, and soon trouble would arrive in the Midwest. Steinbeck wrote about the Joad’s, a family living in Oklahoma wanting to travel to the West to get a job and have food. In the contrast to the Joad’s, Steinbeck wrote about what types of situations were happening during the Dust Bowl; countless people were trying to buy cars and move out West to find a better place to live than in the heart of the Dust Bowl. Route 66 was a popular road that numerous people drove on to go to the promise land of the West. The picture I created was the long road that took them to
The Grapes of Wrath explicates on the Dust Bowl era as the reader follows the story of the Joads in the narrative chapters, and the migrants in expository chapters. Steinbeck creates an urgent tone by using repetition many times throughout the book. He also tries to focus readers on how the Dust Bowl threatened migrant dreams using powerful imagery. As well as that, he creates symbols to teach the upper class how the Dust Bowl crushed the people’s goals. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck utilizes imagery, symbolism, and repetition to demonstrate how the Dust Bowl threatened the “American Dream.”
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
The opening scene’s setting gives a premise to the overall gloomy and dusty lifestyles of the Okies. The whole time period is already gloomy from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, but the description of the bland Oklahoma landscape is sad. Steinbeck even wrote about dust like it was an ominous homewrecker. Dust and the wind and the elements in general are given all of the power in this chapter and in future chapters. Such dominant influence of nature suggests the family structure of the Joads and other Okies to be unstable. The environment governs the family, making them move, causing them to seek jobs due to poor land and subsequent lack of work.
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,
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
One of America’s most beloved books is John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The book portrays a family, the Joads, who leave Oklahoma and move to California in search of a more prosperous life. Steinbeck’s book garnered acclaim both from critics and from the American public. The story struck a chord with the American people because Steinbeck truly captured the angst and heartbreak of those directly impacted by the Dust Bowl disaster. To truly comprehend the havoc the Dust Bowl wreaked, one must first understand how and why the Dust Bowl took place and who it affected the most. The Dust Bowl was the result of a conglomeration of weather, falling crop prices, and government policies.
The “Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s”, was written by Donald Worster, who admits wanted to write the book for selfish reasons, so that he would have a reason o visit the Southern Plains again. In the book he discusses the events of the “dirty thirties” in the Dust Bowl region and how it affected other areas in America. “Dust Bowl” was a term coined by a journalist and used to describe the area that was in the southern planes in the states of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, between the years of 1931 and 1939. This area experienced massive dust storms, which left dust covering everything in its wake. These dust storms were so severe at times that it made it so that the visibility in the area was so low to where people
As you approach your home, you realize the empty barn and the crooked house sagging close to the barren ground. A closer view unveils an empty, dried up well, an emaciated cat limping past the caved in porch, a tree with "leaves tattered and scraggly as a molting chicken" (23), a stack of rotting untouched lumber and cracked, jagged window panes reflecting the desolate land abroad. This description portrays the Joad family's home suffering from abandonment when they leave their country home life for better opportunities in the west. Steinbeck portrays the plight of the migrant Joad family from Oklahoma to California in search of a better life during the Great Depression in The Grapes of Wrath.
Directed by John Ford and based off of John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1940) stars Henry Fonda as Tom Joad who migrates to California with his family during the Great Depression.
The Dust Bowl was a treacherous storm, which occurred in the 1930's, that affected the midwestern people, for example the farmers, and which taught us new technologies and methods of farming. As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land." The early thirties opened with prosperity and growth. At the time the Midwest was full of agricultural growth. The Panhandle of the Oklahoma and Texas region was marked contrast to the long soup lines of the Eastern United States.
(Worster12) but neglects the fact that at the time of the Dust Bowl many of the farmers weren’t fully educated in preventing most of the natural disasters that occurred. The drought has caused a lot of unfavorable conditions for farmers in the southwest. In Worster’s book he says “Few of us want to live in the region now”. There is too much wind, dirt, flatness, space, barbed wire, drought, uncertainty, hard work.”
The media makes a significant contribution to the depiction of today 's society. Unfortunately, the news coverage focuses only on the misdeeds and crimes that people commit. Although it has been 76 years since John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, his argument exploring the reason behind humanity 's tendency to be evil during the Dust Bowl migrant flight to California is applicable to the motivation behind crimes committed today. Throughout Chapter 25 of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, he uses the progression of Utopia being destroyed by men through the allusion to the Garden of Eden and the event of Eve biting the apple. The tone shift from harmony to chaos through the aid of the connotations implied by imagery, in addition
Imagine standing outside trying to farm your dying crops. All of a sudden, the sky gets dark. You look up and see a big, black cloud heading straight towards your town. You attempt to seek shelter, but it is too late. Cars come to a complete stop, and people rush to get cover. The cloud of dirt sweeps into your small town, and you can no longer see anything but only feel the gritty dirt blowing against your skin. This occurrence is what people experienced during the Dust Bowl. In the historical fiction book, Out of the Dust, the author, Karen Hesse, describes the hardships that Billie Jo and her family faced during the worst years of the Dust Bowl. Hesse depicts the effects of the dust storms, reasons for the occurrence of the dust storms,
The Struggle in The Grapes of Wrath & nbsp; The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a story about life in the Great Depression. Steinbeck tells the story of the Joad family and how they struggle to survive. Also he has short chapters about the background and what was going on outside of the Joads. & nbsp; together. Although Tom's parents have no idea that he has been paroled. But as they reach the house the two of them notice that it is unusually banged up and empty. When they step inside, the house is vacant except for a couple of things that were left behind. Some of them were important to the family. & nbsp; Then they see a person coming towards them. It turns out to be Muley Graves, an old friend. The three of them start to talk for a long time about what is going his dad and whole family with his sudden arrival. Soon after Tom learns that the entire family is going to go west, to California. After little debate they decide to go the next day and bring Tom and the preacher. Also coming were grandpa and grandma, pa and ma, Toms older brother Noah, Toms younger siblings Al, Rose of Sharon (who is pregnant) and her husband Connie, Ruthie and Windfield, as well as Uncle Tom. & nbsp; Early the next morning they started for California, their spirits extremely high. But soon after they left Oklahoma things started to turn for the worse.&nbs one day a part of the car and a bearing went out. Tom and Casy stayed with the car and everybody else went on in the Joad truck until they saw a good spot to stop. Al then drove back in the truck. Then Tom and Al drove back a few miles to a town to get the part. They ran into a nice man with one eye. The man hated his boss, who had left for the and a wrench too. As soon as they got back the two of them and Casy put in the parts and drove up to where the families were camped. The next morning they headed west again fully aware of their good fortune. After that things did not go quite as well. Grandma started to get sick, even more than her depression over grandpa's death. Casy was a bit more worried about her own health.&nb & nbsp; Their money situation was starting to get grim as well. But soon they crossed the border into California. When they got across they stopped near a river to relax. They set up camp and the men went down to the river to swim and relax. When they were done Tom went on the bank to take a nap when Noah came up to him and told him that he was going to leave. After a little argument Noah turned and walked down the river, never returning her that she would have to get out. When Tom walked up she was distressed about being pushed around by the cop. Then Tom told them what Noah had done. Late that afternoon the Joad family left their friends behind, because the woman was sick, to cross the desert at night. When they crossed the desert they were stopped by the border control to check the cars for food. But grandma swore there was none and that they needed to get died on the trip over the desert. Then they stopped at a camp and unpacked. Soon the police came and told the people there that they had to leave by nightfall. Then there was an altercation in which the cop shot his gun at a man. The man was running away to talk back. A woman's fingers were shot off. Tom hit the cop and knocked him unconscious. When the police came, Casy took the blame for Tom and they hauled him off to jail. Then Rose of Sharon's husband Connie took off. That night everyone left the camp and the Joads went south to a government camp. They got there late, and The police couldn't come in with out a warrant too. The very next morning after arriving Tom got a job at a man's farm. But no one else could get a job. While they were there the police tried to stage a fight so they could get in a clean out, but it failed. & nbsp; were talking a bunch of people snuck up on them and killed Casy, then Tom took a stick and killed the man who had murdered Casy. The next day lots of people were looking for Tom so the family left and went to pick cotton. The family was again lucky and got a boxcar to live in at the cotton farm. There they picked cotton and made decent money. But Tom could not help, he had to go off with a small farm that needed picking. The next morning they got up early but tons of people were already there. By noon the whole field was picked. The Joads made ninety cents. Then suspicion arose about Tom and he was forced to leave the family and go off some where. & nbsp; That night it began to rain and Rose of Sharon went into labor. Also the camp was in danger of being flooded.
Title: Grapes of Wrath: Questions and Answers What are the chief reasons for the mass migration to California? I believe that the primary reasons for the mass migration to California were poverty and the desire for a better life. The people in Oklahoma were struggling to make ends meet and barely had enough to survive. They worked long hours on farms and received little compensation for their hard work. This made them frustrated and unhappy.