The Grapes of Wrath

The novel, The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, describes the journey of the Joad family, as well as other families, as they migrate towards California in attempt to find a job. While making their journeys across America, the jobless men of these families would begin to talk to each other, realizing that they have a similar background. Many of them lost their farms due to the Dust Bowl, and many lost their homes due to foreclosure. These men would then bind their families together, and try to make the trip to California as one. Eventually, more and more families would come together to form what Steinbeck called a zygote. Steinbeck’s idea of the zygote is accurate, because the scientific definition of a zygote is an organism developing from a living cell — as did the people from a single idea, to revolutionize the system. The theory of the zygote is expressed when Steinbeck describes the formation of it, the danger of it, and finally how the system tries to prevent it from revolutionizing.

When the migrant men were migrating to California for work, they would have to regularly have to stop their truck and repair its tires or refill its gas. Sometimes, when a migrant family stopped, there would be other families there, too. The two families would begin to talk, realizing that they have a lot in common. These families would then migrate to California together.

The two men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single pot, the silent, stone-eyed women; behind, the children listening with their souls to words their minds do not understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket. It’s wool. It was my mother’s blanket—take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb. Th...

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...rants would threaten them to raise their wages and improve their working conditions. When the men talked about the similarities of their lives, they came together. When they came together, they got angry about the government. The men became a zygote that the government feared would cause a revolution.

Steinbeck’s idea of the zygote described many of the jobless Americans during the Great Depression. The zygote was the men who had talked with each other and formed as one. In The Grapes of Wrath, the people suffering from the Depression form a zygote that threatens to overthrow the government; to regulate it so that they can have a job that pays them an adequate amount of money. One man can be ignored, but millions cannot be.

Work Cited

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Web. 25 September 2014.