More handpicked essays just for you.
Importance of minor characters in the grapes of wrath
Grapes of wrath social issues essay
Major issue of grapes of wrath
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
How has the figure of the traditional American hero changed in The Grapes of Wrath?
The Grapes of Wrath was written John Steinbeck, it was published in 1939. Steinbeck was interested in social and economic issues, the Grapes of Wrath is set during The Great Depression in America and follows one migrant farming families struggle. The southern states where farming was high such as Oklahoma, Arkansa, Texas and Nebraska were badly affected. Farmering families were unable to make any profit because of atrocious farming conditions. Harsh drought led to crop growth failure, then heavy winds blew away the topsoil on the land, resulting in vast amounts of Dust all over the land. Oklahoma became known as the “Dust bowl”. John Steinbeck sums up what many migrant families were forced to do in The Grapes of Wrath, “the dispossessed were drawn west from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand.” 1 From 1930 to 1935, almost 750,000 farms were lost through bankruptcy or sheriff sales. 2
In the novel we see a change in the hero. There is a move away from the traditional American hero who was the independant, cowboy image, the cowboy represented a Capitalist American society. While the representation of the hero in The Grapes of Wrath was an ordinary person that works hard. The glamour of the Cowboy hero is gone by the 1930s. People are not being encouraged to think for themselves anymore instead they are encouraged to work hard together. This is seen in the Grapes of Wrath.
The Grapes of Wrath follows the journey of the Joads, a family forced t...
... middle of paper ...
...alifornia with his family and Jim Casy. Casy begins organising the workers into a union and in trying to help others he gives his life. Tom follows in Casy's footsteps and towards the end of the story after he has been forced to go on the run, Casy tells Ma, "one time he went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an' he foun' he didn't have no soul that was his'n. Says he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain't no good, 'cause his little piece of a soul wasn't no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was whole." Tom was willinging to do whatever it took to help those in need, in the end Tom is a hero, he is an ordinary man standing up for a large group of disadvantaged workers.
Work Cited
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Web. 25 September 2014.
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.”
The Grapes of Wrath has many obvious connections to the romance archetype, and many subtle connections. One of the more obvious connections is the journey. The main characters, the Joads, embark on a journey from Kansas to California. In the 1930’s Kansas was in the ‘Dust Bowl’, a part of the Midwest where the land dried up, causing fierce dust storms that could kill people. California, on the other hand, was the beautiful, fertile valley, where people could pick peaches, become prosperous, and eventually buy a house to settle down. The fact that the Joads traveled from a terrible place to a better place fits the romance archetype. This better place they search for is the connection to the earth that they once had in Kansas. They envision that they can find it in California as well.
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
California in search for a brighter, economic future. The name Joad and the exodus to
Grapes of Wrath. In the beginning of the novel The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads are faced with the challenge of traveling Route 66 all the way to California. This is their solution to being tractored off their land and having no way to support the large family. This challenge is similar to the depression of 1929, when many people lost their jobs, homes, and their whole lives.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck, which focuses on an Oklahoman family that is evicted from their farm during an era of depression caused by the Dust Bowl. The Joad family alongside thousands of other refugees (also affected by the dirty thirties) migrates west towards California seeking employment and a new home. John Steinbeck’s purpose for writing this novel was to inform his audience of how many of their fellow Americans were being mistreated and of the tribulations they faced in order to attain regain what they once had. As a result, The Grapes of Wrath triggered its audience’s sympathy for the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers and their families.
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.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is considered a classic novel by many in the literary field. The trials and tribulations of the Joad family and other migrants is told throughout this novel. In order to gain a perspective into the lives of "Oakies", Steinbeck uses themes and language of the troubling times of the Great Depression. Some of these aspects are critiqued because of their vulgarity and adult nature. In some places, The Grapes of Wrath has been edited or banned. These challenges undermine Steinbeck's attempts to add reality to the novel and are unjustified.
Because of the devastating disaster of the dust bowl, the Joad family was forced to leave their long-time home and find work and a new life elsewhere. They, like many other families, moved to California. "The land of milk and honey". The people in the dust bowl imagined California as a haven of jobs where they would have a nice little white house and as much fruit as they could eat. This dream was far from the reality the migrant farmers faced once in California. The dreams, hopes, and expectations the Joads had of California were crushed by the reality of the actual situation in this land of hate and prejudice.
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, has many social class conflicts presented in the book. The main thing that Steinbeck concentrates on is the fact that if a man had land he had a name, he had a purpose. Though some men in the 1930’s were living in poverty and having to struggle to provide for their family, they still had a place, their land kept them grounded, they didn’t feel like they were ultimately losing everything. Steinbeck tells a story about a family that got their land taken away from them and their struggle to continue on with their lives.
In the Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the various themes of the novel, as well to set the tone of the novel".
What does it take for one to achieve the American dream? What kinds of struggles does one need to overcome to achieve their goals in life? In the classic novel The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, you can follow the Joad family in the pursuit to their dreams and the difficulties they faced and overcame. The Joad family faced numerous conflicts including; men, society, nature, and him/herself but overcame many to keep pushing them towards their dream; to go to California and find a better life.
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.
John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath in response to the Great Depression. Steinbeck's intentions were to publicize the movements of a fictional family affected by the Dust Bowl that was forced to move from their homestead. Also a purpose of Steinbeck's was to criticize the hard realities of a dichotomized American society.
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.