The Grapes of Wrath

On October 29, 1929 one devastating situation occurred. Fourteen billion dollars was lost out of the marker, in one day. Over the following weeks our country lost thirty billion dollars. This action was one of the major starts of the Great Depression. Scared the banks started recalling their loans and wanted the money. People were scare for what the future had and wanted to be paid. Farmers, especially in Oklahoma and some surrounding States were hit hard. They were experiencing a drought. A drought meant they weren’t getting enough crops and without sufficient crops, they weren’t getting enough money to pay their bills. Families were thrown out on the street with no place to go. California was a state that had crops and needed workers. Owners of land sent out thousands of flyers. As these flyers reached the desperate families experiencing drought, they packed up all that they could and headed west. These men wanted to work, but had no place to work at. They thought they had found the solution to their problems. However, once they reached California it became clear that their work was going to be hard and there was very little. In Grapes of Wrath, it discusses a family that experienced all the problems first hand. Once they reach California, they are hoping for miracles. Every time they find a nice place, something makes them leave. Towards the end of Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck themes about how they world has changed during the Great Depression through three important messages: the function of a family, political statements and we will always continue to survive.

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.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck had many comparisons from the movie and the book. In 1939, this story was to have some of the readers against the ones that kept the American people in poverty held responsible for their actions. This unique story was about the Joad’s family, who were migrant workers looking for a good decent job. They were also farmers from Oklahoma that are now striving to find some good work and success for their family in California. This novel was one of Steinbeck’s best work he has ever done. It was in fact an Academy Award movie in 1940. Both the movie and the novel are one of Steinbeck’s greatest masterpieces on both the filmmaking and the novel writing. Both the novel and film are mainly the same in the beginning of the story and towards the end. There were some few main points that Steinbeck took out from the book and didn’t mention them in the movie. “The Grapes of Wrath is a

The Grapes of Wrath is a fictional story based on real events witnessed and experienced by the author, John Steinbeck. It follows the life of the Joad family; a family directly affected by the Dust Bowl tragedy, and their journey to California in an attempt to leave their shattered life behind them and forge a new livelihood for themselves. At the start of their trek to California when the Joad's are packing up what they can fit into their decrepit vehicle, a change in the denomination of women's work sets the inevitable in motion. This event is when Reverend Casy (a man who is more of an ex-Reverend because he has lost his connection with God) offers to relieve Ma Joad of her job of salting th...

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 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.

The Grapes of Wrath This event occurred in the era of the Great Depression in the United States, which was in the late 1920's and early 1930's, when the whole nation had to go through hardships because of the scarce resources in the country. Beginning with the stock market crash of 1929, poverty and oppression spread across the nation like a wild fire taking everyone by surprise. The Dust Bowl helped continue this movement. Many different things caused this event.

John Steinbeck uses symbolism to enrich his writing. Several of these symbols can be found in his book, The Grapes of Wrath. The Joad’s, a family from Oklahoma, are in search of a better life. They leave their home in journey to California because of the dust bowl. The symbols in the book are the dust, the turtle, names of people, and the grapes. These symbols give the reader an additional perspective of the book. Dust represents life and death. Dust makes a mess of things and leaves possessions under a mucky film. The farming in Oklahoma becomes difficult because the heavy winds uplift the soil and carry it great distances. Then the farmers are left with no soil to grow their crops. The Joad’s livelihood depends on the soil. If the soil is rich, then it will feed hundreds. But if the soil is dry, it destroys crops and causes famine. The dust covers Oklahoma and leaves the Joad family with no other choice, but to move. The Joad’s journey to California is as slow as a turtle. Heat in the desert, car problems, and the death of the grandparents make the journey long and painful. A turtle shelters himself by pulling his head, legs, and tail inside his shell. The Joad’s gather together as a family to comfort and shelter themselves. A turtle feels safe when it enters his shell and the Joad’s feel safe when they gather as a family. There is symbolic significance in the names of characters throughout The Grapes of Wrath.

Migrant workers went through a lot of struggles. They went through life and death situations, prejudice, and one of the most important things of all they had to keep their family and people together and keep believing that they would make it to a better life. The things they go through while immigrating change their views on life forever. Some for the good some for the bad.

Grapes of Wrath4 In John Steinback’s masterpiece novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the novelist uses Ma as the loving, caring, and physical backbone of the family. She is the prime example of the novel’s theme: in order for survival to be successful, people must join together and form a "we" environment as oppose to an "I" environment. Her strength that she instills throughout the novel, her leadership role that she has to help keep the family together, and her love she nourishes to her family shows the readers the true meaning of Ma as Steinback expresses her. Her outstanding characteristic is the essential need for the family’s unity. As the emotional and physical backbone of the Joad family, Ma demonstrates her leadership skills throughout the journey to California.

The book The Grapes of Wrath is the story of a family, the Joads, struggling to get to California. Their goal is to reach California and find jobs so they can buy their own house. The book takes place during the depression when jobs were very scarce so noone in the book can find work. Also during this time people in California did not like the people they called "Okies" who were the farmers who moved to California in search of jobs just like the Joad family. The people of California looked down upon the okies and showed it by treating the okies badly. Some business men took advantage of all the okies and told many of them about job offerings. They told more people about this job offering than they needed, making the wages go down. This kind of treatment is the very thing that stands in between the Joads and their goal, which angers them and sadens them. The same goes for every other family like them.