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Times change, people change, and with these as so the struggles of life. In John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is living in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Driven off their land, the Joads turn to the promised land of California to get them through these tough times. They face hardships and test their hopes in search of a better life, this hope stemming from the thought that things really will be better in California. The Joads refuse to give up even when this hope was weakened, tested, and pushed, holding themselves together to preserve their unity as a family and to survive. In the face of such harsh situations that should hold no hope, there is still hope.

Steinbeck uses symbols to develop hope and loss of hope in The Grapes of Wrath. One particular symbol of this theme is the turtle, which drags himself along on his path despite the factors that attempt to thwart his efforts, such as the truck driver that purposely tried to run the turtle over. The turtle is characterized as, "The old humorous eyes looked ahead, and the horny beak opened a little. His yellow toe nails slipped a fraction in the dust" (Steinbeck 22). The turtle represents the struggles and determination of the Joad family, even after being knocked around by life's fists, and their persistent hopefulness that if they keep going then things will be all right.

Each character is paired with conflicts or obstacles throughout the novel in which hope is gained or lost. The loss of hope and the regaining of hope were persistent, even seen by those who were not main characters such as the squatters, farmers, etc. Steinbeck says, "You know what cotton does to the land; robs it, sucks all the blood out of it" (Steinbeck 43). The...

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...nd this helped Rose of Sharon and Ma to retain hope in particular since they were the main ones involved in helping the dying man.

In conclusion, the novel's main theme was hope and loss of hope. Each character's hope was tested, lost, and later regained through a series of events, such as the death of the baby or Sharon sharing her breast milk with a dying man as a last act of strength and maturity in the story. Even at the end, the family stays strong in the wake of their journey and tries to do the right thing for themselves and others. Ma takes the lead of the remainder of the family while Tom leaves to fulfil Casy's last task of organizing the migrant workers, adding hope to their dim situation during the flooding that replaced the blazing heat. Hope may be fragile, and easily waivered, but still people retain it in harsh times where hope should not be present.