The Decade Riding on a Turtle

Animals and objects often function as a stand in for human kind, especially in literature. Authors’ repeatedly use them to draw reference and explain different characteristics, emotion, and situations of inhumanity. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck used the turtle to illiterate the journey of a lot of people during the 1930’s to 1940’s. During the period the dust bowl, a series of relentless wind storms and drought, was caused by improper methods of farming that would help prevent erosion. Families were compelled to leave their farms to find work because of the drought and dust storms had left many homeless. Many people experienced the pain of their mortgages foreclosed by banks. Families would pack up the automobiles and head across the country. As the automobile transformed into a more accessible form of transportation it became a saving grace for many of the agricultural farm workers in search a new beginning. The turtle and the automobile both literally and figuratively crossed paths and had a small but somewhat significant impact on each other.

In John Steinbeck’s book “The Grapes of Wrath” he vividly illustrates through the lives of an Oklahoma farm family, the Joads some the ramifications of depression, drought, dust storms, and degradation of people. In chapter three Steinbeck puts the spotlight on a turtle that was crossing a highway. The turtle represents the slothful odyssey of Joads and other migrants in search of work. The turtle epitomize being tough, strong willed, and persistence. Steinbeck writes, “All over the grass at the roadside a land turtle crawled, turning aside for nothing, dragging his high domed shell of the grass.” The turtle was focused on his goal to get to the other side of the street, not...

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...ross a street during rush hour. Nice drivers stopped and waited for the turtle to cross their paths being personified as pedestrian. The author mooched the old fable of the tortoise and hare by saying the tales reputation “…was in jeopardy…” the evening the turtle was crossing. The snapping turtles situation mirrored those of the migrant famers that were in the process of relocation; both faced challenges from all over and had to keep moving forward in order to stay alive. At the end of the Article the turtle made it to the other side, but its freedom didn’t last for long. The turtle was seized and then detained in the prison ward in the Long Island Cat and Dog Hospital. When the Agriculture famer immigrants would reach their destination, if they were lucky enough to get hired, they ended up being exploited with terrible work conditions and wages by their employers.