As Jonathan Swift once said, “Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.” The Great Depression was a time of considerable sorrow for countless people across the United States. A crumbling economy and suffering industry coupled with hard climate conditions caused widespread unemployment, and forced a multitude of people off of their land. Entire plantations were crushed due to the lack of growing crops, and families were forced to migrate thousands of miles in order to seek a new and better life. Yet not all felt the hard effects of this bleak era. Many of the larger corporations and banks who fared better contributed to the amount of depression among the people by forcing people who could not pay for their mortgaged land off of it. These “big dogs” could not understand the situation and wants of the common people. The cruelty that these people, who ultimately became migrants, faced at the hands of others, is the crux of the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck focuses on presenting the hardships and the cruelty that migrants faced through the central character in his novel: Tom Joad. The Joad family as a whole represents a prime example of the sort of family that endured hardships during this trying era. Steinbeck develops Tom from a selfish and self-centered character to a fully realized and complete character through his presentation of events to Tom and the effects of the events in Tom's life in order to show the corruptness of human nature.
Steinbeck’s presentation of specific events to Tom shapes his personality and perception of the world, more specifically the intricacies of human nature. The first obstacle that Steinbeck presents Tom with is the truck dri...
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... Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 135. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2012.
Ditsky, John. Critical Essays on Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Boston: n.p., 1989. Print.
Ditsky, John. "The Grapes of Wrath: A Reconsideration." Southern Humanities Review 13.3 (Summer 1979): 215-220. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 135. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2012.
Owens, Louis. "The Culpable Joads: Desentimentalizing The Grapes of Wrath." Critical Essays on Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Ed. John Ditsky. Boston: G. K. Hall and Co., 1989. 108-116. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 135. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Jan. 2012.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. 1939. New York: Penguin Group, 2006. Print.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath, The Moon is Down, Cannery Row, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men. New York: Heinemann/Octopus, 1979. pp.475 - 896.
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).
Character arcs, a primary method of keeping the reader’s emotions tied to the novel and its characters in order to maintain their interest. This method of character development is often implored by writers such as John Steinbeck; this can be observed in his novel The Grapes Of Wrath. An example of such a character arc is Tom Joad’s spiritual and emotional development, as he gradually becomes Jim Casy’s spiritual heir and student. Fully understanding this dramatic development is started by one analyzing three different stages that Tom undergoes throughout his life; starting with his philosophy and actions as a young child, when he finally meets Jim Casy and the acceptance of the new way of thinking, concluded by when he decides to act on the
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 a novel that does not end with any sort of hope, but does end with the reader learning about how real this novel really was. You do not put this book down after you read it and smile and wish that you could have been living in this era. This is why he ended the novel the way that he does and not 40 pages earlier where he could have made it a happy ending. Steinbeck is just like his novel and he wants you to know what happened, and why it happened. All of this happened because people were forced out of their homes and the only place they had to go was west and almost all of the families ended up like the Jones; with no money, nowhere to go and nothing to look forward to. Even though this is not the way that you wanted the ending of this novel to go, there was no other way that it could have ended.
Wyatt, David. New Essays on the Grapes of Wrath. New York: Cambridge UP, 1990. Print.
In literature as in life, people often find that they must make difficult choices in order to survive. The reasons behind their decisions and the results of their subsequent actions affect our opinion of them. In the Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, the author portrayed situations where two main characters became involved. The nature of their choices, the reasons behind their decisions, and the results that followed affected them greatly. However, the choices that they made were surmounted successfully. Ma Joad and Tom Joad are two strong characters who overcame laborious predicaments. Their powerful characteristics helped to encourage those that were struggling.
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Linda Pavlovski and Scott T. Darga, vol. 106, Gale, 2001. 20th Century Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/KSZNPN102098467/LCO?u=schaumburg_hs&sid=LCO. Accessed 14 Dec. 2017. Originally published in CLA Journal, vol. 31, June 1988, pp.
Tom Joad is an ex-convict that was only into his own self-interest and lived by a mantra of live your life day by day and not concerned with the future, to becoming a man who thinks about the future and someone with morals and an obligation to help others. Ma Joad is a typical woman of the early 1900’s whose main role was a mother only with a role of caring and nurturing. Later in the novel, she becomes an important figure for the family and is responsible for making decisions in keeping the family together and emphasizes the importance of unity. Another important transition in the book is the family starting off as a single close knit unit to depending on other families to survive. This common interest and struggle bonded the community of individual families to a single one. Steinbeck wrote this novel very well, by having great character dynamics and development that displays the characters strengths and also their
In chapter three, Steinbeck immaculately describes the long, tedious journey of a land turtle across a desolate highway. From the onset of his journey, the turtle encounters many setbacks. Along the way ants, hills, and oak seeds hinder him under his shell. The turtle’s determination to reach his destination is most apparent when a truck driven by a young man swerves to hit the turtle. The turtle's shell is clipped and he goes flying off the highway, but the turtle does not stop. He struggles back to his belly and keeps driving toward his goal, just as the Joads keep driving toward their goal.
Tom is good natured and deals with what life throws at him, during the long trip towards work the family has realized the can count on Tom to help protect them. His past isn't going to define his future or change the way he feels about his family. As they arrive to California they get the devastating news that work is sparse and many people are dying of starvation, including Grampa who dies of a stroke. When the major change of losing a family member Tom realizes that life can be gone faster than you think and you see him changing into a more considerate person and a more sentimental person towards others. After they have buried Grampa, Tom comes across a “one eyed mechanic” who he helps fix his touring car. An act that he would probably never do in his past. Steinbeck shows Toms development into a more considerate person as the book
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