Social classes have the purpose of creating order and community by categorizing similar people together. Order and categorization are not necessarily negative traits of society, but they are not immune from exploitation and abuse by certain classes of a society. Both Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway and John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath serve as social criticisms of the societal abuses faced by characters in the novels. Woolf views society as the source of conflict for the characters in her novel. They struggle with the internal and external forces of the rigidity of society. Steinbeck uses social realism and intercalary chapters to discuss the hardships faced by migrant farmers. While Woolf utilizes unconventional dual narratives …show more content…
Steinbeck story centers on Depression-era farmers during the Dust Bowl; however, the trials and misfortunes the farmers endure are not caused by the harsh and barren land but by fellow humans. Landowners and bankers repossess lands, and the farmers come to understand that the cruelty they face from the banks is not human, but rather inhuman and almost monstrous: “If a bank or finance company owned the land, the owner man said, The Bank – or the Company – needs – wants – insists – must have – as though the Bank or the Company were a monster” (Steinbeck 41). Steinbeck portrays the prosperous as cold, merciless, and unfeeling because they have stopped seeing the farmers as fellow human beings but rather profits and losses. Woolf’s character of Sir William Bradshaw probably best embodies the uncompassionate elitist that Steinbeck does not personify because of his desire to portray the upper class as a monstrous collective rather than a villainous character. Bradshaw, a prominent psychiatrist, believes in Proportion and Conversion, a method to make the mental ill conform to his way of thinking. Woolf includes Septimus Warren Smith to expose the injustices faced by the mentally ill. Like the migrant farmers, the mentally ill occupy the fringes of society and are seen as subhuman pests. Even though Bradshaw’s diagnosis is correct, his apathetic attitude only aggravates …show more content…
Dalloway and The Grapes of Wrath give messages about equality and human dignity . Woolf employs stream-of-consciousness in order to illustrate the inner thoughts and emotions of her characters, and this technique highlights Clarissa’s constant feelings of confliction due to her choices between following tradition or finding independence, but Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness also illuminates the thoughts of Septimus who similarly yearns for independence from the suffocating world that surrounds him. The presentation of Clarissa and Septimus as two sides of the same coin signifies the intuitive connection all humans share regardless of class. When Clarissa learns of Septimus’ suicide, she recognizes that Septimus is like her, an empty person facing society’s oppressive nature, and understands his final act of rebellion: “Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate…But this young man who had killed himself - had he plunged holding his treasure?” (Woolf 134). Clarissa identifies with Septimus and views his suicide as an act of valor because he seeks to protect his soul from rigid and unfeeling arms of London society. Clarissa comes to understand the human spirit and its need for independence. In the same way, Steinbeck’s cinematic narrative style fosters the characters’ understanding of the dignity of humans and the human spirit. Steinbeck’s intercalary chapters of general observations acts as commentary of the mindsets of the migrant farmers.
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,
John Steinbeck’s novels The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men reveal and confront the struggles of common individuals in their day-to-day lives. The Grapes of Wrath creates a greater verisimilitude than Of Mice and Men as it illustrates the lives of Oklahoma farmers driven west during the Dustbowl of the late 1930’s. Of Mice and Men deals with a more personal account of two poor men and the tragic ending of their relationship. Steinbeck expresses his concern for multiple social issues in both The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Tightly-knit relationships appear prominently in both books and provide the majority of the conflicts that occur. The decency of common people is written about to a great extent in The Grapes of Wrath and is also prevalent through numerous examples in Of Mice and Men. As in all effective writing that bares the soul of the author, each novel reveals Steinbeck’s core beliefs.
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.
In the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck the author uses excessive profanity, religion, and migrants to show the hard times family’s had to go through in the 1930’s. Most people believe that Steinbeck novel is too inappropriate for high school students because of its content. This novel should be banned from the high school curriculum.
Through his use of imagery, phrases like “did not try anymore” and words like hard, crust, and pale paints a picture of an open dry unpromising field filled with dying crops. This mental image created by Steinbeck’s words evokes unpleasant emotion: before the audience is even introduced to the main characters John Steinbeck has already made his audience empathize with the character’s situation. “Men stood by their fences and looked at the ruined corn, drying fast now, only a little green showing through the film of dust. The men were silent and they did not move often, And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men -- to feel whether this time the men would break.” This drought left the farmers with nothing to do but stare at their dying crops, thinking of how their families will make it. Meanwhile, the wives and children were worried about the men in their lives and their lack of resources. “After a while the faces of the
The tale of The Grapes of Wrath has many levels of profound themes and meanings to allow us as the reader to discover the true nature of human existence. The author's main theme and doctrine of this story is that of survival through unity. While seeming hopeful at times, this book is more severe, blunt, and cold in its portrayl of the human spirit. Steinbeck's unique style of writing forms timeless and classic themes that can be experienced on different fronts by unique peoples and cultures of all generations.
When Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, our country was just starting to recover from The Great Depression. The novel he wrote, though fiction, was not an uncommon tale in many lives. When this book was first published, the majority of those reading it understood where it was coming from-they had lived it. But now very few people understand the horrors of what went on in that time. The style in which Steinbeck chose to write The Grapes of Wrath helps get across the book's message.
Prejudice is a strong word. It is the kind of word that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. One of Steinbeck's themes in the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is the prejudice against the migrant workers by the financially established Californians. Steinbeck provides four clear examples of prejudice; the man whose children died of starvation, the fishing story, the California police officer and the history of the Californians.
John Steinbeck wrote the The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 to rouse its readers against those who were responsible for keeping the American people in poverty. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Joad family, migrant farmers from Oklahoma traveling to California in search of an illusion of prosperity. The novel's strong stance stirred up much controversy, as it was often called Communist propaganda, and banned from schools due to its vulgar language. However, Steinbeck's novel is considered to be his greatest work. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and later became an Academy Award winning movie in 1940. The novel and the movie are both considered to be wonderful masterpieces, epitomizing the art of filmmaking and novel-writing.
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.
In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, a fictitious migrant family, the Joads, travel west in search of a new life away from the tragedies of the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma. Along the way, Steinbeck adds a variety of minor characters with whom the Joads interact. Steinbeck created these minor characters to contrast with the Joad’s strong will power and to reflect man’s fear of new challenges, and to identify man’s resistance to change. Three minor characters who fulfill this role are Muley Graves, Connie Rivers, and the tractor driver.
The Grapes of Wrath attempts to show the difference between the groups of people and the characters along the lines of race, class, and religion, which are discussed in this paper. The Okies' racial status as Anglo Americans appeared to distinguish them from other immigrant workers. Steinbeck utilizes their whiteness further bolstering his good fortune. The "Harvest Gypsies" articles underline the migrants' Anglo-Saxon legacy: their names "show that they are of English, German and Scandinavian plunge." To these families living in provincial regions, with names like "Munns, Holbrooks, Hansens, Schmidts," majority rules system "was not just conceivable be that as it may inescapable" (Hicks, 1939). Steinbeck announces that "this new race" is in California for all time, dissimilar to past migrant gatherings who were extradited when they were no more handy; consequently, he predicts, the state will need to adjust its framework to suit them. Since they are Americans, "the old routines for constraint, of starvation wages, of imprisoning, beating and intimidation are not going to work." The Grapes of Wrath offers a challenge to working class readers to unite with the working population subjects of the story, contending that the desolates of capital amassing are felt all around the society, even all the more intensely on the penniless migrant workers.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work.